With the countdown having begun for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the government intends following Beijing’s footsteps in taking aggressive measures to control pollution – more so with a Thursday-released study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revealing that Delhi and its surroundings have some of India’s ‘worst polluting zones.’

Formulating an all-encompassing environment pollution index (CEPI), on the basis of air, water, and land pollution, the study said that 75 out of a list of 88 industrial clusters in India are ‘severely’ polluted, 10 major industrial hubs reportedly having “very alarmingly high” levels of environmental pollution.

Commenting on the disquieting environmental pollution levels, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said: “Many of these areas have already exhausted their capacity. We might put on hold new approvals in these 10 polluted hotspots till their environmental health is restored.” Further, the CPCB and the state PCBs have been asked to submit an action plan for these polluted areas within three months.

These so-called 10 polluted ‘hotspots’ include - Ankleshwar and Vapi in Gujarat; Ghaziabad and Singrauli in UP; Korba in Chhattisgarh; Chandrapur in Maharashtra; Ludhiana in Punjab; Vellore in Tamil Nadu; Bhiwadi in Rajasthan; and Angul Talcher in Orissa.

Meanwhile, on CPCB’s polluted industrial clusters’ list, Ghaziabad ranks third; the Najafgarh drain basin – including Delhi suburbs like Okhla, Naraina, Anand Parvat and Wazirpur – ranks eleventh; Noida twelfth; and Faridabad eighteenth.