As air quality slips back to ‘severe’ category, Delhi govt bans entry of app-based taxis registered in other states

The government has also asked schools to prepone their winter vacations to November 9-18. Most schools usually schedule their winter vacations in the last week of December or the first week of January.

Addressing a press conference, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai also said that the odd-even car rationing scheme will be implemented after the Supreme Court reviews its effectiveness and issues an order.

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had pointed out that “a large number of app-based taxis in Delhi… have registrations in different states”. “If we look at the roads, each one is carrying only one passenger. We would like to know whether there is any way of monitoring, especially during this period of time, (so) that only taxis registered in Delhi are permitted to ply, as an additional measure to control the pollution,” the Bench had said.

“The court has said that app-based taxis coming from other states should be banned. The transport department has directed that app-based taxis entering Delhi from outside be banned. The department will issue a detailed order,” Rai said, adding that bus and metro services have been enhanced to meet the requirements.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had also called into question the odd-even scheme of the Delhi government, calling it “optics”. “You have said that you have imposed this alternative cars, even-odd… Did it succeed earlier ever… These are all optics. This is the problem,” the Bench had said, and asked the state government to “report back to us… on this aspect also”.

Responding to this, Rai said the reports on the effectiveness of the odd-even scheme would be submitted to the Supreme Court, and the government would proceed with the scheme on the basis of the court’s directions.

“We had decided to implement the odd-even scheme from November 13…on odd-even, we have had two studies – one by Harvard University and the University of Chicago, and the other by Delhi Technological University. These reports will be submitted to the Supreme Court,” he said.

Guidelines on the implementation of the odd-even scheme will be issued only on the court’s directions, he said.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), meanwhile, has been directed to restart the functioning of the smog tower in full capacity by Thursday. To deal with local instances of biomass burning, 611 teams of the Municipal Corporation Delhi, DPCC and revenue department officials have been formed, and a special drive will begin Thursday.

“To implement the order of the Supreme Court on the matter of air pollution in Delhi, we had a meeting today. I would like to thank the Supreme Court…they have directed that the smog tower, which was closed on the orders of the DPCC chairman, should resume functioning. It has also been directed that the real-time source apportionment study, which was also stopped, be resumed and data from it be made public. For this, the Delhi government is grateful to the Supreme Court,” Rai said.

“Delhi is implementing measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). But the governments around us are not doing anything. We are hoping that there will now be focus on implementation in other states. In Delhi, there is a ban on fireworks. I have been asking that the states around us should also ban firecrackers, but nobody is willing to listen. It looks like pollution is not important to BJP governments. GRAP orders don’t make any difference to them,” he said.