Advisory to tourists bound for pollution-hit Delhi

New Delhi: Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra, here on Sunday reviewed the situation arising out of severe air pollution in the National Capital Region and other parts of North India at a high-level meeting.

Senior officials from the States of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, joined the meeting through video conferencing. The Cabinet Secretary will monitor the situation with these States on a daily basis.

The Chief Secretaries of these States have been asked to monitor the situation in various districts of their respective States, on a 24x7 basis.

Non-locals and tourists are best advised to be cautious about their Delhi visit plans, it is being advocated by some quarters.

Meanwhile, Odd-Even restrictions shall be in place from November 4 to November 15, 2019 (except Sunday November the 10th).

As Delhi is the capital city and offices of Government of India as well as Diplomatic Missions are located in Delhi, certain high Constitutional Functionaries as well as vehicles driven by women have been kept outside the purview of Odd-Even restrictions.

While considering exemptions to certain categories of vehicles, issue of enforcement on Delhi roads has been of paramount concern. It is, however, noted that there are only less than 1,000 non-transport electric cars registered in Delhi.

There may not be many enforcement issues if these cars are kept outside the Odd-Even restrictions. Their presence on Delhi roads is not likely to cause any congestion and consequent pollution.

It has, therefore, been decided to exempt the electric vehicles from the Odd-Even restrictions, a Delhi government press release said.