Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today expressed "strong displeasure" at the steps taken by DPCC to deal with the city's alarming air pollution and directed it to immediately explore the possibility of engaging an expert agency for remedial steps in tackling the situation.
Kejriwal, who held a Cabinet meeting where DPCC officers made a presentation on the situation, directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to make a fresh presentation on Monday on the ways to deal with the rising pollution along with action plan.
Sources said that the Chief Minister also wanted to know the reasons behind the prevailing situation.
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"In the meeting, the CM was angry with the way the DPCC was handling the situation. He directed DPCC to immediately explore the possibility of involving an expert agency to study the reasons behind the prevailing situation and to recommend remedial steps to deal with the rising air pollution," a source said.
In view of the heavy smog, the worst the capital has faced in 17 years, municipal corporations today ordered closure of their about 1,700 schools tomorrow.
The national capital is facing the worst smog in 17 years, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had said yesterday, while asking the Delhi government to issue health alerts and convey that children should stay indoors as there is a state of health emergency due to peaking air pollution.
Peak level of respirable pollutants PM 2.5 and PM10 had crossed the safe limits by over 15 times at places like R K Puram. The prescribed standard of PM2.5 is 60 micrograms per cubic metre, but it touched 955 in real-time during early morning hours yesterday.
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"The biggest reason for pollution in Delhi is the smoke from burning of stubble in neighbouring states like UP, Punjab and Haryana.
"That is the number one reason, but we haven't looked at that, instead we are looking at other reasons... In Delhi we need a regional plan," Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.
With Delhi being engulfed by the worst smog in 17 years, the National Green Tribunal, today came down heavily on the Centre and Delhi government for not taking steps to tackle the alarming air pollution level, asking them not to shift the blame on each other.
