The Delhi government has issued a directive to its departments as well as private sector offices to reduce air pollution in the city. The national capital has been witnessing ‘severe’ to ‘severe plus’ levels of air quality for the past couple of days.
The government had earlier in the day announced that 50 per cent of its staff would work from home. Environment Minister Gopal Rai had said that a meeting would be held at 1 pm to decide on the implementation of the WFH mode in government offices.
The Delhi government has ordered its departments to move to work from home mode. The government has also directed private sector offices in Delhi to follow the order. Those in the essential and emergency services would be exempt from the order.
According to Rai, nearly 18 services have been exempt from this order.
The government issued two more advisories for the private sector companies – to start fleet services for their staff and to start staggered office timings. It has asked the companies to defer office call timing to 10:30-11 am.
The decisions have been taken after meeting with stakeholders from the private sector, including Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
Despite the implementation of Stage IV Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) measures, the air quality in Delhi was in the ‘severe’ category at 424. However, this reading was an improvement from Tuesday’s 483 which was in the ‘severe plus’ category.
"If we compare the last 2 days, a slight decline is being recorded in the AQI of Delhi and we hope that further improvement will be seen. Our effort is to reduce the level of pollution in Delhi as much as possible, for which the government is taking many steps," said Rai in an interview to ANI.