Amid speculations that the government will relax and dilute the norms for the emission standards, environment activists held a protest march outside Union Environment Ministry here on Thursday.

 A group of activists from environmental NGO Greenpeace stood outside the ministry wearing huge lungs as props and sad-face masks, demanding not to dilute the emission standards of thermal power plants.

The ministry in December 2015 laid down the emission norms which for the first time included Nitrogen and Sulphur Oxides for the thermal plants. 

It was later found that none of the 400 coal-based thermal power plants met the new set standards, after which the ministry reportedly decided to relax the deadline to be adhered to till December 2017 and also diluted the norms.

"The Joint Secretary of the Ministry, Arun Kumar Mehta, assured us that emission standards for thermal power plants will not be diluted," Jitendra Kumar from Greenpeace said.

The demonstrators also handed over a petition signed by over one lakh people for a 'Clean Air Nation'. 

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