NEW DELHI: The Delhi government and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) have notified directions to all schools in the national Capital regarding the pollution situation.
The schools will have to adhere to all these guidelines till further notification, which include restrictions on outdoor activities and other specific rules which the head of the schools should implement on an emergency basis.
"The DPCC has printed 10 lakh leaflets on the issue of harmful effects on atmosphere of burning crackers, especially in the present scenario when all the indices quality of air have become extremely alarming," noted a circular.
"The said leaflets will be distributed to all three RDE offices by evening of November 1. Accordingly, the same are to be distributed to all students of Delhi government school during November 2-3," it added.
The Capital has been grappling with dangerous levels of pollution over the last two weeks, with the worst overall Air Quality Index (AQI) for this season being recorded at 401 on Tuesday, which falls in the 'severe' category.
On Wednesday, authorities said the air quality turned 'very poor', as wind speed picked up early morning and dispersed pollutants, authorities said.
The overall air quality index of Delhi was recorded at 366 by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
An official with the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) said the improvement in air quality can be attributed to increased speed of early morning winds.
"Early morning winds picked up, which came as respite and dispersed particles rapidly and pulled back air quality towards very poor range," the official said.
The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology also spotted a large number of biomass fire spots through satellite imageries in neighbouring states of Delhi.
A SAFAR official said pollution is likely to increase faster now with lead pollutant as PM10 because of new development as shown by SAFAR-model where it is indicating that western disturbances may hit over western Himalayan region from October 31.