NEW DELHI: Despite the rhetoric about air quality in the capital and the Graded Response Action Plan coming into force on Tuesday, the truth is that not many are taking dust pollution seriously. Construction sites are still lax about dust control norms. While carrying out spot checks in different parts of the city on Tuesday, TOI found regulations being flouted by constructors at Pragati Maidan, Bhairon Marg, Mayur Vihar, Barapullah Phase 3 and the Delhi-Ghazipur border, lately a dust bowl due to work on the Delhi-Meerut expressway there.Track the pollution level in your cityIt has been calculated that over 131 tonnes of dust is generated every day in the city. An IIT Kanpur study recently established that road dust makes up over half of the coarser PM10 pollutants and around 38% of the respirable PM2.5 pollutants. Measures like covering of open dust heaps, damping of soil , use of dust suppressants and vacuuming of roads are meant to curb the problem, but little is being done. TOI noticed that not even the basic mechanical sweeping of roads had been undertaken at many sites.Opposite the Supreme Court, construction material lay uncovered, disregarding the dust regulation norms. Around Pragati Maidan there were heaps of soil and debris in the open, and a haze hung over the area. The agency involved in the trade ground redevelopment seemed to have taken no visible steps to prevent dust from flying into the air except to put up green tin sheets as barriers. A number of locations completely ignored even this mandatory erection of windbreakers to prevent dust pollution.Work on Barapullah Phase 3 is nearing completion and there was little activity on Tuesday. But vehicles were nonetheless creating clouds of dust because the soil hadn’t been dampened. At no point did TOI observe workers wearing masks to avoid inhaling particulate matter. PWD officials claimed that a large component of debris at the site was clay, not fine sand. “We cannot sprinkle all the excavated soil with water, so we transport the debris mostly at night,” he added.This year, the Central Pollution Control Board had emphasised to all the NCR states the need to employ dust suppressants. Its letter to the states noted the results of a study by CSIR-NEERI at construction sites at Sarai Kale Khan, Narela and Dilshad Garden, where suppressants initially curbed 50-60% of the dust, and in six hours, up to 30%.But on the Delhi-Ghazipur border, the thousands of vehicles rolling into the capital were enveloped in billowing dust. Fines imposed recently by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board appeared to have made little impact. As in other parts of the city, at the highway construction sites there debris lay uncovered as more dust was being raised by bulldozers. TOI made several attempts to contact the National Highways Authority of India, but there was no response.The municipal corporations claimed to have amped up preventive measures in the past month. South Delhi Municipal Corporation claimed to have fined 660 dust norms violators since October 1 and collected Rs 23 lakh, while the north body issued 887 penalties totalling Rs 17 lakh. The latter also claimed to have constituted night patrolling teams to check garbage burning and waste material dumping in each ward.EDMC officials said they would flag off 40 sprinkling tankers, six jetting machines, two super sucker machines, four litter picking machines and six mechanical road sweepers on Wednesday. Delhi will only hope that these are meant to clean the air rather than be props for political photo-ops.