Delhi orders primary schools closed till November 10 amid 'severe' air quality

The Delhi government has ordered all primary schools in the national capital to stay closed till November 10 in view of the 'severe' air quality. The announcement was made on X (formerly Twitter) by Delhi Education Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Sunday.

"For Grade 6-12, schools are being given the option of shifting to online classes," Atishi tweeted.

Earlier, the Delhi government ordered all government and private primary schools to remain closed till November 2. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to X on Thursday to announce the temporary shutting of schools due to the deteriorating pollution levels.

An official order by the MCD asked teachers of classes Nursery to V to conduct sessions in the online mode as schools were instructed to "discontinue" offline form for November 3 and 4.

Delhi's air quality dropped to the 'severe' category on Friday and has showed no sign of improvement since. The national capital recorded an overall air quality index (AQI) of 460 at 7 am on Sunday, thus remaining in the 'severe' category. Delhi's average AQI settled at 415 on Saturday.

Delhi's neighbouring cities of Noida and Gurugram, which are part of the national capital region (NCR) have also witnessed 'severe' category AQI since Friday.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai told India Today on Sunday that the government's focus at the moment is to "strictly prohibit construction work and vehicles from entering inside Delhi, causing pollution, implement a ban on BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel vehicles, control garbage, and biomass burning...".

"People should use public transport instead of private vehicles... We requested the Union Environment Minister yesterday that the rules of GRAP should be implemented strictly even in the NCR. The orders that CAQM (Commission for Air Quality Management) gave for diesel buses are not being followed. Our effort is to strictly implement these rules within Delhi and the NCR, in collaboration with the Central government, since the BJP is in power in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. We are trying to ensure that they also focus on implementing this...," Rai added.

Owing to the hazardous air in the national capital, the Centre has already implemented Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), under which several restrictions are in place to curb pollution. This includes a ban on non-essential construction work, mining and stone crushing, and also restrictions on plying of BS III petrol and BS IV diesel four-wheelers in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Gurugram, and Faridabad.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has taken multiple measures to combat the increasing air pollution in the city, including Mechanical Road Sweepers (MRS) in two shifts with GPS tracking for wet sweeping, using an anti-smog gun or mist sprayer, and deploying 18,000 water tankers or trolleys to sprinkle water on trees and shrubs along the main roads of the national capital.