To continue its fight against air pollution in Delhi, the city Government on Monday extended a ban on construction work till further orders.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the entry of fuel-run trucks will be banned in Delhi till December 7.
“We held a meeting with officials of all departments to review the current pollution situation in Delhi. In the meeting, the experts suggested the possibility of pollution levels in Delhi remaining in the ‘very poor’ category. But if the Meteorological Department’s prediction of rainfall is correct, then the situation might change. Under these circumstances, it was decided today that all construction and demolition work in Delhi will be banned till further orders. Under this, electrical work, interior decoration, plumbing, and carpentry can continue. Along with that, all construction workers will be given a compensation of `5,000 ,” Rai said.
While essential services vehicles, CNG and electric trucks can enter Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government will start the third phase of the ‘Red Light On, Gaadi Off’ campaign on December 3 to curb vehicular pollution. The campaign will run till December 18.
Rai added, “Schools, colleges, and institutes have reopened in Delhi today. Along with that, the work-from-home directives for Government offices have also been lifted and people have started coming to their offices.”
The Delhi Government will also start a bus service for colonies where Government employees live in huge numbers. There are 14 such major colonies - Gulabi Bagh, Mayur Vihar Phase 2, Motia Khan, Shalimar Bagh Block A, Timarpur, Hari Nagar, Sector 3 Dwarka, Nimri Colony, Ashok Vihar, Sector 11 Rohini, Karkardooma, Model Town Phase One, Vikaspuri, Paschim Vihar, and Vasant Kunj. Around 8:30 in the morning, buses will leave from their colonies and come to the Secretariat. In the evening, they will leave around 5-5:30 PM.
“We have taken this step to curb pollution and this will enable employees to come to work at the office and reduce vehicular pollution at the same time,” Rai added, “The campaign against open burning in Delhi will continue. Until now, 8,480 sites have been visited and inspected by our teams under the open burning campaign, and violations were found in close to 1,000 places. The violating agencies, organisations, and individuals have been fined `28.76 lakh so far. Apart from that, the water sprinkling campaign by the PWD, all MCD’s, and the fire brigade will continue. All departments have been directed to continue all campaigns until further orders.
“There are vehicles inside Delhi that are producing a lot of pollution and do not have a PUC certificate. The Transport Department and the police will continue checking for PUC certificates.
18 lakh PUC certificates were issued in October and November. The people who did not have a certificate and were caught violating the norms, 14,000 people have been fined in the last two months. Along with that, the transport department has also been instructed to carry out an awareness campaign.
A whopping 30 lakh people were sent SMS texts asking them to get their PUC certificates made or they will be fined a penalty of `10 lakh.”
