A culmination of factors including smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring States, local pollutants, and unfavourable conditions for the dispersal of pollutants pushed air quality in the capital on Friday to the “severe plus” category, a stage at which all emergency measures need to be initiated to improve the quality of air.
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Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena called for an emergency meeting to discuss the situation and instructed all agencies of the government, irrespective of their mandate, to prioritise pollution mitigation in their activities. He appealed to people to remain indoors as far as possible, avoid unnecessary travel and if necessary, use public transport.
A statement from Raj Niwas said that the L-G appealed to the neighbouring States, especially Punjab, which accounted for 1,921 (71.57%) of 2,684 stubble-burning incidents on November 1, to curtail the activity. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was away in Chhattisgarh campaigning for the Assembly election, was unable to attend the meeting, while Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai was present.
With Delhi enveloped in a haze, all primary schools were shut till Monday and a ban on non-essential construction and demolition activity was implemented. There is also a ban on the plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel LMVs (four-wheelers) with a fine of ₹20,000 for violations. The Delhi government has deployed anti-smog guns and is sprinkling water on roads to prevent dust from rising. It has also implemented a campaign asking vehicle users to switch off the engines of cars at traffic signals to curb emissions.
An official at the metrological department said that unfavourable weather conditions – low wind speed, non-conducive wind direction, and lack of rain – are likely to persist for another two to three days due to which the situation is unlikely to improve. The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) rose from 351 at 10 a.m. on Thursday to 471 at 9 a.m. on Friday and fell to 468 at 4 p.m.
However, the Central government’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) continued with the implementation of Grade III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a set of emergency measures taken to reduce air pollution, which kicked in on Thursday evening. Grade IV of GRAP, the final stage of the Centre’s air pollution control plan that should be activated at least three days prior to the AQI surpassing the 450 mark based on forecasts, is yet to come into effect.
Stage IV of GRAP calls for shutting down of education institutes, offices to work at 50% strength, and implementing the odd-even scheme for plying of vehicles, among others. In a statement, the CAQM said the sub-committee noted that Delhi’s average AQI is already showing a declining trend since afternoon. “GRAP Stage-III has been implemented only on Thursday late evening and it’s only reasonable to give time to have its full impact on the average AQI. The actions therein are expected to yield positive results,” the CAQM said.
It added that after comprehensively reviewing the overall air-quality scenario and relevant aspects, it was decided to watch the situation for a day or more, before invoking more stringent disruptive actions under Stage-IV of GRAP.
GRAP categorises actions into four stages: Stage I - ‘poor’ (AQI 201-300); Stage II - ‘very poor’ (AQI 301-400); Stage III - ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450); and Stage IV - ‘severe plus’ (AQI above 450).
