New Delhi, November 4
The national Capital continued to reel under the impact of pollution with air quality index in the “severe” zone for the third straight day, and environment minister Gopal Rai urging the Centre to convene an emergency meeting with NCR states to address the emergency.
The AQI in the Capital stood at 415 today, a marginal improvement from 468 (‘severe plus’) on Friday. The concentration of poisonous PM2.5, however, was still over 80 times the healthy limit prescribed by the World Health Organisation.
Among the areas with worst air were Anand Vihar (488), Shadipur (487), Wazirpur (474), Punjabi Bagh (465), Bawana (463), Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (454), Okhla (448) and Rohini (459).
Other National Capital Region (NCR) cities were no better with an AQI of 490 in Greater Noida, 438 in Faridabad, 408 in Noida, 404 in Gurugram and 394 in Ghaziabad.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’. With stubble burning continuing to exacerbate the situation, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai wrote to his Union counterpart Bhupender Yadav to convene an emergency meeting of environment ministers of all five states. Rai urged the Centre to permit only CNG, electric and BS VI-compliant vehicles in Delhi-NCR to combat vehicular pollution.
As Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)-III kicked in from November 1, only electric, CNG, and BS VI-compliant diesel buses are allowed to ply between Delhi and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, as per directions of the Centre’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).
Rai suggested to Yadav that a similar ban on entry of vehicles non-compliant with BS VI norms in the NCR be imposed by the Centre also.
(With inputs from agencies)
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