New Delhi authorities have restricted many private vehicles from the roads to help lessen pollution as toxic smog in the city sparked a public health crisis.
Private cars with even and odd number plates will be allowed on roads only on alternate days from 4 to 15 November, officials said.
Expressing his differences with the city government, which has made a decision to ration road use to bring down the number of vehicles, Goel said cars contribute only 3% of Delhi's pollution.
India's Central Pollution Control Board said on Sunday the average air quality index, or AQI, for New Delhi was at 494, the highest level since November 2016, when it reached 497.
Air pollution in New Delhi and many of India's northern states peaks this time of year as farmers in agricultural regions burn crop stubble to clear their fields.
Last year, air pollution was so bad in New Delhi that the government enlisted firefighters to shoot the skies with water.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority said that pollution in Delhi required emergency measures as it posed a health risk.
Liverpool Equal All-Time Premier League Record
The Midland outfit were a goal up against Liverpool until the 87th minute, only to eventually succumb to two late goals. He said: "Relentlessness is probably the main word in and around the camp at the minute".
While pollution is a perennial problem in the city, this severe seasonal increase in smog has become all too familiar over the past few years.
"I feel like moving out as well because I'm young and I'm still on a stage of building up my life and my career", said a Delhi resident, Divyam Mathur.
But the current crisis has turned into the worst in three years, and New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called for a range of measures to fight what he described as "unbearable pollution".
But national environment minister Prakash Javadekar accused Kejriwal of politicising the issue, while an MP from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) violated the odd-even auto rule as a "symbolic protest" by driving a vehicle that was barred under the scheme.
India's top court has ordered a complete halt to stubble burning around Delhi, a major contributor to lethal smog that on Tuesday kept the metropolis of 20 million people choking in air rated "very poor". "You've got industries and power plants, you have transport emissions, particularly trucks but also private vehicles, you have waste burning of various kinds, and you have road dust and construction dust".
Schools, which were closed on Friday last week, remained shut on Monday, and city-wide construction was halted until Tuesday in Delhi and surrounding areas. Those with even numbers can be driven in the city only on even dates, such as six, eight and 10.
The Supreme Court said the capital's residents were "losing precious years" of their lives, adding "people are dying, this just can not happen in a civilised country".




Comments