Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai writes to UP Transport Minister to take action against non-destined vehicles

Gopal Rai, the environment minister for Delhi, wrote to the transport minister of Uttar Pradesh to request action on the transportation of non-destination vehicles into Delhi from the border of UP in order to reduce pollution in Delhi.

“In this context, it is requested that instructions be sent to the relevant parties to guarantee that all non-destined vehicles be redirected via the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways at night at their points of entry prior to the Delhi Border. In light of this, extra enforcement teams might be stationed at each Entry Point to Peripheral Way to guarantee that the aforementioned instructions are followed.” the letter to Dayashankar Singh, the Minister of Transportation in Uttar Pradesh read.

The air quality in Delhi saw a minor improvement on Saturday after the rain on Friday. After a period of time classified as “Very Poor,” the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has upgraded the quality of the air to “Poor.” As per the Saturday 7 am AQI, Anand Vihar was at 295, RK Puram was at 230, Punjabi Bagh was at 244, and ITO was at 263. Gopal Rai, in the meantime, declared that the odd-even car-rationing scheme would not be implemented in the city as planned by the state government.

“The degree of pollution has improved. After being above 450, the AQI is currently only 300. The choice to switch to odd-even from November 13 to November 20 has been rescheduled. After Diwali, the situation would be reevaluated,” the Environment Minister of Delhi declared.

The announcement follows the Supreme Court’s earlier-in-the-day directive to the Delhi government to decide definitively whether to proceed with the Odd-Even Scheme’s implementation. However, the court declined to make a decision and instead left the matter up to the state government.

The nation’s capital currently operates under Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) following a sharp decline in air quality to the’severe plus’ category.