In efforts to combat the alarmingly high levels of pollution in the national capital, Chief Minister ArwindKejriwal announced on Sunday that use of all diesel gen-sets has been prohibited for the next five days from Monday, except for emergency services like hospitals and mobile towers.
The government also decided to sprinkle water on roads of 100-foot width from Monday. The PWD will undertake the measure on all such roads at least once a week.
Work from home: CM
Addressing a press meet after an emergency cabinet meeting, MrKejriwal appealed to the people of Delhi to stay indoors and, if possible, work from home.
A committee comprising the chief secretary and the environment secretary will take up with the central government the possibility of engineering artificial rain over Delhi so that the dust settles down, the Chief Minister said, adding that the cabinet had received a proposal to go for artificial rain through cloud seeding
Mr. Kejriwal also announced that the government was looking at reducing vehicles on the roads by re-introducing the odd-even scheme. The decision comes a month after the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that there was no improvement in air quality in the city during the second phase of the odd-even scheme in April. The CPCB had monitored several pollutants between April 1-14 before the odd-even experiment and April 15-30 during it, to arrive at the conclusion.
The Chief Minister met Union Environment Minister Anil Dave on Saturday and discussed a series of measures to deal with the air pollution. Mr Dave has called an emergency meeting of environment ministers of Delhi and neighbouring States on Monday.
