New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS): Even as Delhi reels under a third wave of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday assured the situation will likely be under control within a few days.
The assurance came a day after the city shattered the records of single-day spike in death toll.
It logged 104 deaths and 7,053 infections. The fatalities and spike in cases coincides with the dip in mercury, rising pollution and festival season, as people throw caution to the winds and spill out on streets.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said, "The Covid-19 situation in Delhi should come under control in the next 7 to 10 days.
"We are taking all the necessary measures," he said, attributing the spike to the incumbent pollution crisis.
The overall air quality of Delhi is currently in the very poor category at 338 microgram per cubic meter. Air quality is predicted to deteriorate and remain in higher-end of very poor levels in absence of any additional emissions due to fireworks during the Diwali period.
The Chief Minister also blamed the spike in noxious air to the transport of smoke from stubble burning in Delhi's adjoining states. "From the last 10-12 years, smoke from the stubble burning blows to Delhi and northern India during these months which causes pollution."
He added, "Famers are the most effected. They do not want to burn the stubble as most of the smoke from it remains in their villages. Nothing was done to curb it till now. Every year political is played on the issue but no solution has been found."
Kejriwal announced that his government has found a solution to the menace and tested a solution developed by the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in PUSA that dissolves the residual stubble in farm lands to turn them into manure.
He claimed that scientists analysed the results from these 24 villages and found that 70-95 per cent of the stubble had dissolved. "We are going to file the petition before the newly-formed air quality commission and urge them to ask the governments to use this bio decomposer."