Thousands of sanitation workers across the Capital should be pressed into service for Delhi’s campaign against pollution caused by burning of biomass, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday. Mr. Javadekar was speaking at a meeting called to discuss measures to curb air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region. This was the fifth such meeting, where representatives of environment departments and local bodies from the NCR were present. According to a statement from the Ministry, Mr. Javadekar said there was a need for holding awareness-cum-training camps for 7,000 sweepers in Delhi, so they could work towards reducing biomass burning. Last winter, Delhi had seen particularly bad air quality, which the State government had said was being caused in past by the burning of agricultural waste in neighbouring states. The Minister said that there had been a 30 per cent decline in stubble burning, and that Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan had banned the practice. As per the Ministry’s statement, since last year Delhi had fined 480 polluting vehicles and increased the number of PUC centres from 702 to 828. “The Delhi Government has also started online monitoring of power plants and waste-to-energy plant. It has also set up compost units in 346 parks in the city,” as per the statement.