The Aam Aadmi Party government led by Arvind Kejriwal on Monday will submit a proposal on imposing a lockdown in the national capital owing to rising air pollution to the Supreme Court.
The Top Court has on Saturday asked the government to consider imposing a lockdown for two days to control the pollution. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that imposing a lockdown will be a major decision and there will be wide consultation before taking any such decision. Kejriwal on Saturday said the government will prepare a draft proposal of a lockdown and its modalities and will submit it to the apex court.
Starting from November 15, all schools in Delhi will remain shut for a week. Schools in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Jhajjar will also remain closed till November 17.
The government has banned the construction activities till November 17 in Delhi.
The Haryana government has also banned construction works in four districts
Apart from emergency services in the national capital, all government offices will work from home, starting from tomorrow. Haryana has also urged offices to switch to work from home mode as much as possible.
The Delhi government has also suggested shutting down diesel generator sets and coal kilns in Delhi, increasing parking fees, increasing the frequency of metro and bus etc to mitigate the pollution. Meanwhile 400 tankers will be sprinkling water to settle dust in Delhi.
The AAP will complete the work of spraying bio-decomposer solutions for stubble decomposition in 4,000 acres of fields by November 20 this year.
As Delhi and Haryana shut schools, the Commission for Air Quality Management had advised Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on Sunday to consider implementing restrictions.
There was a marked improvement in Delhi’s air quality on Sunday as the air quality index was 330 as against 437 on Saturday and 471 on Friday.
The air quality may improve a little over the next two days in Delhi because of the ban on construction activities, according to the forecast.