The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to relax any curbs under GRAP Stage-IV when Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) rose to 332 at 8 p.m., after hovering around 310-315 this morning and remained at 300-303 during the entire day on Wednesday. If the air quality improves in next few days, the apex court may allow some relaxations when it hears the matter December 2.
At 7 a.m., Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 306, but it rose to 310 at 8 a.m., further to 313 at 9 a.m., and was on average 316 at 10 a.m., according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. At 8 p.m., as many as 31 of the national capital’s 39 monitoring spots from where data were available had AQI between 301-400 and one spot at Bawana recorded 410. The lowest was 259 at Lodi Road.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, 401 and 450 ‘severe’ and above 450 ‘severe+’, as per classification by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).
The CAQM had first invoked curbs under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage I from October 15 after AQI turned ‘poor’. It further invoked GRAP II restrictions from October 22 when AQI turned ‘very poor’ and GRAP III curbs from November 15 after air quality fell to ‘severe’. However, from November 18, GRAP IV restrictions were invoked very soon after air quality deteriorated to the ‘severe+’ category (above 450 AQI).
There has been a considerable drop in cases of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana in the past few days as the normal sowing window of wheat is over and more than 95 per cent of the paddy area has been harvested or at harvesting stage as of November 27, sources said.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department Thursday said that minimum visibility, which was 600 meters at Safdarjung at 7:30 a.m., had improved to 900 meters by 9:30 a.m., and winds had been mainly calm throughout Wednesday night. The city’s minimum temperature settled at normal at 10.1 Degrees Celsius, it said.
Hundreds of construction workers staged a protest near the Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s office on Wednesday, demanding compensation for the income loss they have suffered due to the ongoing ban on construction activities under GRAP IV.