New Delhi: Pollution levels in Delhi and neighbouring cities dropped marginally on Saturday with slight increase in wind speed and light rains, a day after the region recorded its worst air quality forcing authorities to shut schools, ban all construction activities and declare a public health emergency.
Light scattered rainfall due to a western disturbance slightly brought down the city’s overall air quality index (AQI) to 402 at 8 pm from 407 at 10 am.
It was 484 at 4 pm on Friday, according to official data.
However, 20 out of 37 monitoring stations recorded AQI in the ‘severe’ category (401-500).
Vivek Vihar was the most polluted at 450 followed by Anand Vihar and ITO, both at 448.
In the National Capital Region (NCR), Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida recorded AQIs of 455, 432 and 429, respectively, at 8 pm on Saturday. On Friday, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida had an AQI of 496 at 4 pm, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered “good”, 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor”, 301-400 “very poor”, and 401-500 “severe”. Above 500 is “severe-plus or emergency” category.
In a crackdown on violators, authorities arrested 34 people including a director and three engineers from sites of five real estate groups in Noida and Greater Noida for carrying out construction activities despite the ban.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation issued challans of Rs 5 lakh to each of the four companies involved in the ongoing development work at Pragati Maidan for violating the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order pertaining to construction work.
Over 22,000 cases of stubble burning had been witnessed in Punjab and more than 4,200 incidents in Haryana in the recent days, officials said.
The share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution reduced from 44 per cent Friday, the season’s highest, to 17 per cent Saturday, according to government air quality monitor SAFAR. Weather experts said there is a significant improvement in wind speed and it will increase gradually. (PTI)
