Air Pollution: Delhi Prepared For Lockdown, Emergency Meeting Soon To Discuss Ways To Tackle Menace

The Arvind Kejriwal-led government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it is ready to impose a complete lockdown to curb air pollution in Delhi.

The information came to the fore after Delhi government submitted an affidavit with the Apex Court during hearing of a petition filed over the worsening air quality.

In response, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and Delhi government to call an emergency meeting to tackle this menace. The Court has also directed the Chief Secretaries of adjoining states UP, Haryana Punjab to be present in the meeting.

The Supreme Court stated that the major causes of air pollution in Delhi are industries, power, vehicular traffic and construction, and not stubble burning as it was claimed to be.

Moreover, the Supreme Court asked Centre and Delhi government to respond by tomorrow evening (November 16) over which industries can be stopped, category of vehicles that can be prevented from plying and which power plants can be stopped.

Meanwhile, Centre suggested three steps to Supreme Court to bring down pollution – i.e. Introduction of odd-even vehicle scheme, ban on entry of trucks in Delhi. Severest will be lockdown, said Centre.