Delhiites breathe poor air for fourth day in a row; no respite forward

There was no respite from air pollution as Delhi’s air high quality continued to stay within the ‘poor’ class for the fourth consecutive day on Friday. It plummeted to the ‘very poor’ class in some areas, in line with official knowledge.

Delhi’s 24-hour common air high quality index (AQI) was 254 at 4 p.m. on Friday, up from 245 the day gone by, as per the Central Pollution Control Board.

Five of 38 monitoring stations reported ‘very poor’ air. Anand Vihar had the worst AQI at 382, adopted by Wazirpur (351), Jahangirpuri (342), Bawana (315), and Siri Fort (309).

An AQI of 51-100 is taken into account ‘passable,’ 101-200 ‘reasonable,’ 201-300 ‘poor,’ 301-400 ‘very poor,’ and 401-500 ‘extreme.’

“The air high quality could be very prone to be within the poor class from October 18 to 19. It could be very prone to be within the higher finish of the very poor class on October 20 in case of further emissions from firecrackers,” stated an official bulletin.

Blame sport

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stated that there was a “delay” in implementing the Winter Action Plan regardless of ‘poor’ air high quality.

Addressing the media, senior AAP chief and former Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai stated, “The Winter Action Plan was launched after a 15-day delay, simply to finish formalities.”

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva known as Mr. Rai’s statements “deceptive”, including that such responses have been “constant throughout AAP’s tenure”.

Mr. Sachdeva stated the earlier AAP authorities imposed a ban even on inexperienced firecrackers and introduced “inaccurate knowledge” in court docket.

“AAP continues to bask in appeasement politics to please a specific part of society, which is why the celebration is now struggling for its political survival in Delhi,” the senior BJP chief added.