NEW DELHI: Ahead of the hearing on air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the AAP government has told the Supreme Court that it was ready to take steps like complete lockdown to control air pollution.
“GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) is ready to take steps like complete lockdown to control the local emissions. However, such a step would be meaningful if it is implemented across the NCR areas in neighbouring states. Given Delhi’s compact size, a lockdown would have limited impact on the air quality regime.”
“This issue would need to be addressed at the level of airshed involving NCR areas. In view of the above, we are ready to consider this step if the same is mandated for the entire NCR areas by the government of India or by the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and adjoining areas,” an affidavit filed by the Delhi government said.
The affidavit was submitted in response to a plea filed by environmental activist Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka, who sought directions to provide stubble-removing machines to small and marginal farmers for free.
Terming the rise in air pollution in Delhi-NCR an “emergency” situation, the apex court on Saturday suggested clamping a lockdown in the national capital as it asked the Centre and the Delhi government to take immediate measures to improve the air quality.
The court had said the situation of pollution is so bad that people are wearing masks inside their houses.
It had said there are other reasons for pollution such as vehicular emissions, firecrackers and dust, and singling out stubble burning is not the solution.
The apex court had also expressed concern that schools in the city have opened and children are being exposed to severe pollution conditions.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality on Monday witnessed marginal improvement as the air quality in the capital city reached the lower end of ‘very poor’ category with Air Quality Index (AQI) at 318 (overall), according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).
The pollution level in the National Capital Region (NCR), especially Noida and Gurugram, have also shown slight improvement. Noida reported AQI in the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category at 387, while the air quality in Gurugram has seen significant improvement and has now reached the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category at 317.
As per SAFAR’s bulletin, the AQI is likely to improve by tomorrow “as winds at transport level are slowing down resulting in lesser intrusion of farm fires related pollutants into Delhi.”
However, according to SAFAR, calm local winds reduce the dispersion of pollutants, the net effect of which is likely to make air quality remain very poor category.
The effective farm fire count for yesterday was 3445, contributing to 12 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5.
“Implementation of lockdown for the two days with restrictions in anthropogenic activity emitting pollutants, air quality may improve a little but likely to remain in the very poor category if stubble burning share does not increase,” SAFAR’s bulletin read.
The agency further said that the AQI is likely to deteriorate from November 16 night onwards due to calm wind conditions, as predicted.
“On November 17, it is likely to be in the upper end of very poor category,” they added.
The mercury in the capital city has dropped to 11.8 degrees Celcius on Sunday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Owing to high levels of air pollution, schools in Delhi and Haryana have been closed. All construction activities have also been shut down.
