Delhi pollution: Private cars to be stopped if air quality worsens, says official

Delhi's air pollution is again breaching the hazardous levels. The capital has been struggling with severe air quality for the last couple of days. With stubble burning going on in Haryana and Punjab, the situation is likely to get worse ahead of Diwali.  

Environment Pollution Control Authority has said that private cars will be stopped from plying in the capital if air pollution continues to worsen.

"Let us hope the air pollution situation in Delhi doesn't deteriorate or else we will have to stop plying of private vehicles. Only public transport will be used," Bhure Lal, Chairman, Environment Pollution Control Authority, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Low wind speed has added to the woes. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) said that the prevailing meteorological conditions are less favourable for dispersal of pollutants for the next two days due to moderate ventilation index and low wind speed.

Delhi's air quality continued to remain in the very poor category as a thick haze engulfed the city, which was battling alarming levels of pollution.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Centre, and the governments of Haryana and Punjab Monday for the severe air pollution in Delhi, alleging they were not ready to do anything despite the efforts by the Aam Aadmi Party government.

"The pollution was in control in Delhi throughout the year, but this time (winters) every year, Delhi has to face severe pollution due to the governments at the Centre, BJP-led Haryana and Congress-led Punjab," he tweeted in Hindi.

"Despite our all-out efforts, they are not ready to do anything. Farmers of these two states are also fed up with their governments," he said.

Responding to Kejriwal's charges, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan alleged the AAP dispensation had "failed" to undertake basic measures to curb pollution.

He said Kejriwal "cannot absolve himself of responsibility" by targeting the Centre and the state governments.

Vardhan said the Centre had undertaken a series of measures like the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and setting up of air purifiers.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) agreed to the recommendations made by the CPCB for the first ten days of November when the air quality is likely to deteriorate further due to festival season and stubble burning in neighbouring states.

The recommendations include closure of all construction activities that generate dust pollution between November 1 and 10.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)-led task force also recommended shutting down coal and biomass based industries, excluding thermal and waste-to-energy plants, from November 4 to 10, intensification of efforts by Transport Department to check polluting vehicles and controlling traffic congestion in Delhi-NCR between November 1 and 10.

The task force also recommended efforts to provide uninterrupted power supply in the NCR to avoid requirement of operating diesel generator (DG) sets.