Taking cognisance of an affidavit filed by the Delhi government, the Apex court has allowed resumption of construction activities at various hospitals in the national capital. The government of Union Territory of Delhi had earlier filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court to keep Delhi hospitals out of the ambit of ban on construction activities imposed by the Supreme Court due to worsening air quality in the city.
The Supreme Court accepted the government’s plea and allowed the hospitals to resume construction activities. The top court further posted the matter for hearing on December 10, news agency ANI reported. According to reports, the Delhi govt had requested the court to provide exemption to the city hospitals from the ban on construction activities in the wake of the Omicron variant scare. The decision made by the Supreme Court is expected to help hospitals strengthen the health infrastructure to tackle the probable third wave of Coronavirus in the city.
The top court had earlier issued notice to both the central government as well as the Delhi government to list out measures taken by them to mitigate the severe air pollution. The court had also imposed a complete ban on construction activities across the national capital. The air quality has worsened without any respite in the past few days. The air quality index of the national capital has remained very poor over the last few days. On Friday, the AQI remained very poor early morning at 358 in the city, news agency PTI reported.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) remains worse also in the neighbouring regions of the national capital including Faridabad (289), Greater Noida (250), Ghaziabad (331), Gurgaon (309) and Noida (315). The lack of wind movement amidst cold weather is also not helping the matters as the thick smog gets accumulated over the city and remains immobile due to lack of wind speed.