Ahead of Diwali, Delhi pollution level rises; AQI in ‘poor’ category

In Anand Vihar, the AQI on Monday at 9 AM stood at 420; at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium 250, at Ayanagar 157, at IGI airport 242; at ITO 259; at Nehru Nagar 252; at RK Puram 268; at Sirifort 219, respectively.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Yesterday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has issued a directive to all stakeholders, including industries and project proponents of construction and demolition (C&D) sites, to strictly abide by its statutory directives in the coming days to avoid prosecution and penalties.

The commission also urged citizens to strictly adhere to the actions outlined in the “citizen’s charter” at each level of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) in the upcoming days.

Under Stage 1, CAQM recommends stopping construction and demolition activities at sites having plot sizes equal to or more than 500 square metre that is not registered on the “web portal” of the respective states for remote monitoring of air pollution levels.

Agencies concerned are required to ensure periodic mechanized sweeping of roads and water sprinkling, and impose heavy fines for violation of the curbs on open burning of biomass and municipal solid waste.

The authorities are required to strictly enforce PUC (pollution under check) norms for vehicles and maintain a strict vigil to ensure that there are no burning incidents at landfills and dumpsites.

They also need to ensure that thermal power plants comply with emission norms and only approved fuel is used by industries, and stringent action is taken against violations.

Delhi recorded its first poor air day in over three months on October 5. A prolonged spell of rain thereafter suppressed farm fires and kept the air clean.

On October 10, Delhi breathed the cleanest air (AQI 41) since August 31, 2020.