In the light of alarming pollution levels in the National Capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a slew of "emergency" measures, including complete shut-down of schools for a couple of days. Officials have been asked to consider the return of the odd-even traffic plan and look into the possibility of cloud seeding for artificial rain.
New Delhi has been battling a severe smog situation in the past few weeks. The recent measures were announced a day after Kejriwal met Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave. He appealed to people to remain indoors, and if possible, work from home for the time being. An order issued by the Delhi education department said, "Due to deteriorating air quality in the city, it has been decided that all schools will remain closed from November 7 to November 9." The CM has also asked other departments to prepare for the return of the odd-even road rationing scheme. The option of inducing artificial rain was also being explored by his government. "Committee with chief secretary and environment secretary will talk to the Centre for artificial rain to settle dust," he said.
All construction and demolition activities have been barred for five days, along with the usage of diesel gensets. "This does not, however, apply to emergency services like hospitals and mobile towers," Kejri said. He said that the Badarpur power plant would be shut for 10 days. Kejriwal said the fly ash which was being released in the air during transportation would be sprinkled with water. Kejriwal said vacuum cleaning of 100-ft wide roads would commence and officers who fail to check burning of waste would be penalised.
"Environment department will launch an app to enable the public to report cases of leave and garbage burning," he said. Municipal corporations have been directed to put out fires at landfill sites. Delhi has seen the worst pollution of the season with the smog hanging low over the city and maintaining pollution levels extremely high, breaching the safe limit by over 17 times at several places. Environment Minister Dave appealed for a united response. "There is an emergency situation in Delhi. The situation is bad, particularly for children, patients, women, and elderly. We need to take immediate steps to deal with the situation."
Kejriwal said it was about time the Centre intervened. "The Centre can sit with the chief ministers of (neighbouring) states and chalk out a solution. A few reports have put the volume of stubble being burned at around 16-20 million tonnes. Fireworks during Diwali added marginally to the pollution. But other things inside Delhi did not drastically change. So the smog is mainly due to smoke from farm fires," he said.
