India’s capital New Delhi shuts all primary schools as air quality worsens
Al Jazeera
The pollution in New Delhi is likely to stay ‘severe’ on Friday, after which it will improve to ‘very poor’.
India’s capital New Delhi has ordered all primary schools to cease in-person classes until further notice and the country’s government has banned non-essential construction in the city and urged residents to avoid burning coal for heating, to combat worsening air quality that has disrupted flights and obscured the Taj Mahal.
“Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions,” New Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who goes by one name, announced on social media platform X on Thursday.
The other measures, which include sprinkling water with dust suppressants on roads, as well as mechanised sweeping that would help settle dust, will come into effect from Friday morning.
Air quality in Northern India has deteriorated over the past week, with toxic smog obscuring India’s famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, about 220km (136 miles) from New Delhi, as well as Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
On Thursday, New Delhi flights also faced delays, with tracking website Flightradar24 showing 88 percent of departures and 54 percent of arrivals were delayed as of Thursday afternoon due to smog.
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