Delhi’s air quality falls to ‘poor’ level, authorities told to take action

With the air quality in Delhi dropping to the 'poor' level on Wednesday, authorities in the National Capital Region have been asked to strictly implement measures under the first stage of the GRAP Action Plan. The action plan includes penal and legal action against polluting industrial units.

The Centre's sub-committee on GRAP noted in a meeting that there had been a dip in air quality parameters in the region in the last 24 hours, which pushed Delhi's AQI into the poor category.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered 'poor'.

The sub-committee decided that all actions under Stage I of the GRAP 'Poor' air quality be implemented in the right earnest as a precautionary measure, with immediate effect on the NCR, as determined by the Commission for Air Quality Management CAQM in an order, while this is likely to be a localised influence and the forecasts do not predict any further deterioration.

Delhi's 24 day average air quality index stood at 211 at 4 pm, which was worsening from 150 at 4 pm on Tuesday. It stood at 248 in Ghaziabad, 196 in Faridabad, 234 in Greater Noida, 238 in Gurugram and 215 in Noida.

Under Stage-I, the Centre's Commission for Air Quality ManagementCentre's Commission for Air Quality Management recommends stopping construction and demolition activities at sites with plot size equal to or more than 500 square metres that are not registered on the web portal of the respective states for remote monitoring of air pollution levels.

The project promoters are required to ensure proper implementation of guidelines for dust mitigation, management of C&D waste and use of anti-smog guns at construction sites.

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

The authorities are required to strictly enforce PUC pollution under check norms for vehicles and to keep a strict vigil to make sure there are no burning incidents at landfills and dump sites.

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

Vijay Kumar Soni, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department IMD and part of the Centre's sub-committee for GRAP, said the air quality is likely to improve to moderate by Thursday.

He said that light rains and favorable wind direction and speed would help improve air quality over the next three to four days in Delhi-NCR.