After the hearing in the Supreme Court on pollution, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has issued a new order. Some changes have been made in the GRAP rules regarding schools in Delhi-NCR. It has been said that all schools in Delhi-NCR should now be run on hybrid mode on days of pollution. That is, on days of pollution, schools should be run on both online and physical classes.

This means that if parents want to send their children to school, they can do so or if parents do not want to send their children to school, they can take classes in online mode. This will depend on the state governments and parents.

Let us tell you that in the hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court had asked to consider resuming regular classes in schools and colleges. The court said that due to lack of physical classes, many students are being deprived of mid-day meals. Some students also lack the necessary equipment for online classes.

Let us tell you that after the implementation of the fourth stage of GRAP in Delhi due to pollution, the Delhi government had ordered online operation of schools up to class 12th.

A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih ordered the CAQM to initiate action against those officials of the Delhi government and Delhi Police who had committed serious lapses in the strict implementation of the fourth stage of GRAP.

The bench said that it is clear that the authorities did not make any serious effort to implement the measures under sections one, two and three of the fourth phase of GRAP. Some police teams were deployed at some entry points, that too without any specific instructions.

The court said that the police were deployed only on November 23 and thus there was a serious lapse on the part of the officers. Therefore, we direct the Commission to immediately initiate action under Section 14 of the CAQM Act 2021.