This comes after the Supreme Court demanded an emergency plan on Delhi's alarming air quality from the Centre.
Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Saturday, had called an urgent meeting to discuss the issue of air pollution in the national capital. Looking at the same, CM Kejriwal has now announced that schools in the nation's capital will be closed from Monday. CM Kejriwal told reporters that this decision has been taken so that children don't breathe polluted air.
The CM did not announce a lockdown in Delhi, however, he confirmed that the government is working on a proposal for lockdown. "Will present the plan to Supreme Court", CM Kejriwal said.
"The Centre, along with the CPCB and SAFAR, will be taken into confidence prior to such a decision. If a lockdown-like situation comes into place, then all the vehicular, industrial, and construction activity may be shut. This is still in the proposal stage and would be placed in front of the court first," he added.
Meanwhile, it has been decided to put construction activities on hold for three days -- from November 14-17.
"Winds are not really being expected during the said period, and we all know that stubble burning pollution would, in any case, penetrate into Delhi, creating a fatal situation. Thus, we have taken the hard step of having to pull the plug on construction activities for now," the Chief Minister said.
"All the government offices will function in a work-from-home manner for a week. All the government offices will be shut... but it is not a holiday. The entire workforce will continue to work remotely for this week. "The officers will have to be available in the situation of an emergency call. An advisory on similar lines would be issued for the private offices to work from home as much as they can," CM Kejriwal said.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot along with Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev and other officials.
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 "Delhi air pollution: Schools, govt offices shut for a week, CM Kejriwal makes BIG statement on lockdown")
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