Delhi CM Rekha Gupta's ‘use public transport’ plea amid pollution crisis
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta urged people to not take out cars for just person and choose carpool and public transport like metro and buses instead.
Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta, while talking about pollution in the city, said on Wednesday that a major contributor to the pollution in the national capital is vehicles and transportation.
She added that a public transport mode such as the Delhi metro is crucial in curbing the pollution. In an attempt to encourage people to use public transport more often, Gupta said, “If we want Delhi to be breathable, we have to use public transportation.”
Also read: Delhi implements 50% mandatory work from home amid air pollution crisis | Details
“I often tell those who ask about pollution, how will pollution decrease in Delhi? I say that a large part of pollution comes from transportation. When Delhi, which appears as a small dot on the map of India, actually spreads over 1,483–1,500 kilometres, and nearly 3 crore people live here, with millions of vehicles on the roads, many of them even without pollution certificates, the smoke and emissions from these vehicles pollute the air and make it hard for Delhi to breathe,” she said.
“We all put this city in danger for our convenience and then question how this pollution crisis would be solved,” she added, saying that the people of Delhi need to decide that “we will not take our cars out for just person and choose carpool, public transport like metro and bus instead”.
Delhi implements 50% mandatory WFH
Meanwhile, the Delhi government has made work-from-home mandatory for 50 per cent of employees in both government and private organisations mandatory from Thursday as part of emergency pollution-control measures under GRAP III and IV.
Recognising the impact of these restrictions on livelihoods, Delhi's labour minister Kapil Mishra announced ₹10,000 compensation for construction workers who have lost work, reported news agency PTI.
It added that people working in essential services such as hospitals, emergency response units, fire services and departments directly involved in pollution control will not be covered under this scheme.
