New Delhi: In the wake of rising air pollution levels in Delhi-NCR, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged people to join hands with the government in reducing the formation of toxic air.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal said: “If the need arises, we will soon implement the odd-even scheme in the capital.” The odd-even scheme was first introduced in the capital in 2015.
Chief Minister Kejriwal said “New 3,000 eco-friendly buses will soon hit the streets in order to make the city much cleaner and greener. Our government is taking all preventive measures to fight against the pollution. We did a huge plantation of trees in Delhi.”
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According to the state-run SAFAR, a thick blanket of smog engulfed the region on Tuesday morning as the air quality plummeted to the hazardous category with 423 in the morning.
Experts have predicted that the air quality will continue to oscillate between the ‘very poor’ and ‘hazardous’ category till next week because of not so favourable weather conditions.
People residing in Delhi have been advised to wear a mask before going outside. People having a cardio-respiratory problem, children and pregnant women have to take care of their health in pollution,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi.
Talking about the solution to curb the toxic cocktail of gases in Delhi, Dr Guleria said “Overall solution is a holistic plan where individuals have to take part, they start using public transport, less use of cars especially diesel vehicles.”
“Also we have to encourage environment-friendly vehicles like electric vehicles. There should be a major policy for the dust of construction-related work,” added Dr Guleria.
A research paper titled ‘India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative’ published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal has revealed that one out of every eight deaths in India is attributable to the menace of air pollution.