Delhi Pollution: School Shut Till November 10 Except Class 10 And 12
With the rising air pollution in the national capital, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai announced on November 6 that the odd-even rule will be implemented in the city from November 13 to 20. The Delhi government has also announced the closure of schools except for classes 10 and 12. The classes 10 and 12 classes will conducted as normal keeping in view of the impending board exams.
Due to the deteriorating air quality, only classes up to 5 are suspended currently. Earlier, classes from 6 to 12 were given the option of going online.
The minister has also announced that all construction works in the city have been banned from today. The earlier ban on BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel cars in Delhi will continue.
“The odd-even scheme will come into effect in Delhi after Diwali, running from November 13 to November 20. A decision to extend the scheme will be made after November 20,” Mr Rai said.
As per the odd-even scheme, the vehicles with number plates ending in odd digits will be permitted on road on odd dates and those ending in even digits can run on even dates. The announcement came in after a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on increasing of air pollution in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) was held. Delhi educational minister Atishi, and ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj and Kailash Gahlot too attended the meeting.
On Sunday, Delhi was put under Center”s Stage IV of the Graded Response Action plan (GRAP) due to severe decline in air quality. Stage VI is the last stage of the anti-pollution plan. Under this stage, work from home is recommended for 50 per cent of the employees of government and private offices. There will be also complete ban on truck entry into Delhi. The stage IV also allows government to implement additional emergency measures such as closure of colleges and educational institutions and odd-even rule.
Delhi”s air quality climbed from stage I to stage VI on last Friday and remained the same without any change for past four days. The need to extend the odd-even rule beyond November 20 will be reviewed later, minister said.
