A day after Delhi shut schools and advised ‘work from home’ amid hazardous air in the capital, the Centre told Supreme Court that it disagrees with the circular. The central government on Wednesday said that instead of announcing closures, people should be encouraged to opt for carpool “to reduce number of vehicles on road”.
The Centre, in an affidavit, said the number of vehicles used for the Central government business in NCR was not very significant, therefore “the Central government decided that in view of the recent normalisation of functioning of Central government offices post-Covid pandemic, the advantage of not passing work from home direction would outweigh the advantages which would be gained from work from home directions”.
The affidavit added, “Instead, DoPT Government of India has issued an advisory for the Central Government officers and staff for pooling and sharing of vehicles to the maximum extent possible so that number of the Central Government vehicles plying for commuting of officers and staff are reduced substantially”.
Earlier, the top court had asked the Centre and state government to hold an emergency meeting to propose steps to curb air pollution in the capital. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana that a meeting of chief secretaries of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi along with others was held on Tuesday.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by environmental activist Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka, who sought directions to provide stubble-removing machines to small and marginal farmers for free.
Delhi-NCR recorded its air quality in the very poor category on Wednesday morning and no major improvement is likely until Sunday, authorities said.
Delhi transport minister Kailash Gehlot appealed to the neighbouring states to “take pollution seriously”. “Pollution problem is not Delhi-centric, it has to do with NCR, UP, Haryana and other adjoining states. Concrete steps should be taken by them,” he said, adding that the Arvind Kejriwal government is already taking measure to curb pollution.
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