New Delhi, November 29 (IANS). The air pollution situation in Delhi is continuously worsening, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded in the ‘very poor’ category on Friday. The average AQI of the capital was recorded at 332 at 7 am, while in some areas the AQI even crossed the ‘severe’ level of 400.
Air quality has deteriorated in other cities of Delhi-NCR also. According to the data, AQI was recorded at 272 in Greater Noida, 258 in Ghaziabad, 249 in Noida, 258 in Gurugram and 166 in Faridabad.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 0-50 AQI is ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, 401-450 ‘Severe’ and above 450 is considered ‘severe plus’.
Meanwhile, Delhi faced the coldest night of this season on Thursday, when the minimum temperature dropped to 10.1 degrees Celsius.
To deal with the severe levels of air pollution, the Supreme Court had ordered that all Grape-4 measures, not related to schools, will remain in effect till the next hearing.
Apart from this, the Supreme Court had also expressed concern over negligence in following the guidelines of Group-4. The court had warned the authorities to take action on this. Along with this, the state governments were also directed to utilize the labor cess collected for the construction workers affected by the ban on construction works.
Authorities have imposed several restrictions under GRAP-4, including banning the entry of non-essential trucks into Delhi, except those carrying essential commodities or those carrying clean fuels such as LNG, CNG, BS-IV, etc. 6 are running on diesel or electricity.
–IANS
PSK/KR
