The Chief Minister of the National Capital, New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday, if the air quality situation does improve, the restriction would be re-introduced after a gap of two days, from Monday 18 November.
“Road-rationing could only tackle local sources of pollution, but the main source of pollution is due to continued stubble burning in the neighbouring states,” said Kejriwal in New Delhi on Friday.
According to data released by the state government, the vehicular population in Delhi was 10.9 million by March 2018, with an annual growth rate of 5.81 per cent. Of this, cars and jeeps numbered 3.2 million and will be the primary targets of the road rationing scheme.
India’s top courts had blamed the federal and state governments for allowing the situation to slip to critical levels.
The High Court of Delhi on Thursday 14 November, criticised the government of the national capital and other enforcement authorities over the critical level of air pollution in the city.
“…The problem lies in implementation and not lack of ideas. There is a complete lack of will to implement the same….” The court remarked during the proceedings on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the apex court of India had sought data on air quality in Delhi from the local government. The Supreme Court of India had also directed the Delhi government to furnish the Air Quality Index data during the enforcement of road-rationing.
The apex court had called for the federal government and administrations of states neighbouring with Delhi for allowing the situation to deteriorate. It had also requested that the federal government explore hydrogen-based automobile fuel to help mitigate air pollution.
