Schools in Delhi will be shut from tomorrow till further orders over air crisis, state Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced today, shortly after a rap from the Supreme Court.
"We had reopened schools considering the forecast that air quality would improve. However, the air pollution levels have increased again and we have decided to shut schools from Friday till further orders," Gopal Rai said.
Warning of a strict action, the Supreme Court gave a 24-hour ultimatum to Centre, Delhi, and neighboring states to act against industrial and vehicular pollution - counted as the main causes behind the deteriorating air quality.
Chiding the Arvind Kejriwal government over the reopening of the schools, the top court said that "three-year-olds and four-year-olds are going to schools but adults are working from home". "We will appoint somebody to administer your government," Chief Justice NV Ramana said.
After remaining shut since November 13, physical classes in schools, colleges and other educational institutions had resumed from Monday.
Delhi's air quality worsened sharply last month after Diwali. Farm fires were also cited as a source - but that led to debates and blame games. A month on, the city is still gasping for air.
A ban on all construction activities in the national capital is in place till further orders.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sirsa has accused Arvind Kejriwal's AAP - in power before the BJP won the February election - of allowing more than 1.08 lakh vehicles to run on city roads despite each emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
An integrated command and control centre has been proposed in the 2025-26 Delhi budget, presented by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday, for real-time monitoring of air quality, water pollution, noise levels, and waste management.
As part of broader strategy to tackle the expected winter pollution peak, the Delhi government will install six new air quality monitoring stations across the national capital over the next three months, Environment Minister said.
Delhi remained India's most polluted megacity by a wide margin during the 2024-25 winter, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 175 micrograms per cubic metre, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.
A small city on the Meghalaya-Assam border, nearly 2,000 kilometres away from Delhi, is the most polluted in the world, according to a report published by a global pollution watchdog.
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