Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi President Virendra Sachdeva and party MP Praveen Khandelwal, distributed masks at Krishi Bhawan Metro Station Gate to raise awareness about public health measures amid the deteriorating air quality in Delhi.
On November 14, the top court had agreed to urgently list the plea after it was told that Delhi should not become the most polluted city in the world due to the rising pollution.
The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Delhi government over delay in implementation of stricter anti-pollution measures under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) even after the Air Quality Index (AQI) touched alarming levels in the national capital. The top Court said it will not allow scaling down of the preventive measures without its prior permission.
“The moment the AQI reaches between 300 and 400, stage 4 has to be invoked. How can you take risk in these matters by delaying applicability of stage 4 of GRAP,” the bench told the counsel.
At the outset, the counsel for the Delhi government informed the bench that stage 4 of GRAP has been implemented from Monday and heavy vehicles have been banned from entering the national capital.
On Sunday, the CAQM announced stricter pollution control measures for the Delhi-NCR under GRAP-4, effective from 8 am on Monday, including a ban on truck entry and a temporary halt on construction at public projects.
It told the state government that the court wants to know what steps it has taken to curb the alarming rise of pollution level.
