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Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday held a review meeting with concerned departments regarding air pollution and said that all construction activities would remain suspended in the national capital till further orders.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi today, Rai said, "We had a review meeting with all the department's officers over air pollution situation. We got an from the officers that there are chances of pollution level to be in the very poor category." "Keeping this situation in mind, we have decided that all construction or demolition activities would remain suspended here till further orders. An amount of Rs 5000 would be credited to the accounts of labourers. However, electric work, interior decoration and plumbing work will be active," the minister said. Further, he said that there would be a ban on trucks entering Delhi till December 7 and the third phase of the Red light On, Gaadi Off campaign has also been extended for more than 15 days, that is, till December 18," Rai added. Speaking about an open burning campaign, Delhi Environment Minister said, "Our teams have visited around 8,480 sites and found that around 1,000 places violated the norms of this campaign. Around Rs 28.76 lakhs penalty has been imposed on the violators. PWD, all MCDs with help of the fire brigade will continue to do work of water sprinting." He said that the transport department and police will continue to check for cars that don't have a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate on petrol pumps. "A total of 18 lakh PUC certificates have been issued in October and November. For people who do not have the certificate, challan has been issued to them and the teams have found that there are about 14,000 people violated this rules," he added. The minister said that the government has given instructions to the officials to continue the SMS campaign. "Till now, around 30 lakh people have been sent SMS to make their PUC certificates, otherwise, a penalty of Rs 10,000 will be charged. All these measures will be continued to curb pollution," Rai said. Earlier today, the Supreme Court has also directed the Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab governments to explain steps taken by them in compliance with directions issued by Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas to curb air pollution and sought compliance reports from them. (ANI)
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