Air quality remains severe in Delhi-NCR, crackdown on violaters; Haze in Punjab and Haryana too

Air quality remained in the 'severe' category in Delhi and surrounding cities on Saturday despite a marginal dip in pollution while Haryana and Punjab too were blanketed by haze, prompting their chief ministers to press the Centre for an urgent meeting to develop a joint action plan to address the "serious" situation. A day after the Delhi-NCR recorded its worst air quality forcing authorities to shut schools, ban construction activities and declare a public health emergency, the overall air quality index (AQI) was at 402 at 8 pm, as against 484 on Friday, following light winds and scattered rainfall.

The share of stubble burning in Delhi's pollution also reduced from 44 percent on Friday, the season's highest, to 17 percent on Saturday, government air quality monitor SAFAR said. The AQI dipped to an average of 399 for the past 24 hours, which is in the "very poor" category and a shade better than the 'severe' category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) 4 pm bulletin on Saturday.

However, at 8 pm 20 out of 37 monitoring stations recorded AQI in severe category (401-500). Vivek Vihar was the most polluted at 450 followed by Anand Vihar and ITO, both at 448. In a crackdown on violators, authorities arrested 38 people including a director and three engineers, from sites of five real estate groups in Noida and Greater Noida for carrying out construction activities despite the ban.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation also issued four challans of Rs 5 lakh each to construction companies involved in the ongoing development work in Pragati Maidan. Amid concerns over the impact of the pollution on the T-20 match between India and Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley stadium here, the SDMC said it has intensified water sprinkling in the area around the playground.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida recorded AQIs of 455, 432 and 429, respectively, at 8 pm on Saturday. On Friday, they had an AQI of over 490. Weather experts said there is a significant improvement in wind speed and it will increase gradually from Sunday.

With farmers continuing to defy the ban on stubble burning, a blanket of haze engulfed Punjab and Haryana with several districts reporting air quality index in "severe" (101-500) and "very poor" (301-400) categories. Visibility also reduced substantially in most parts of the two agrarian states.

Fatehabad (AQI 493) in Haryana had the worst average air quality in India over a period of 24 hours ending on Saturday evening, according to the CPCB bulletin. Hisar, Jind, Faridabad, and Kaithal also recorded air quality at a "severe" level. In neighboring Punjab, the air quality fell in "poor" and "very poor" categories. Bathinda recorded the air quality index at 318, followed by Ludhiana at 302.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". Above 500 is the "severe-plus or emergency" category. “Haze is prevailing in Chandigarh, Punjab, and Haryana,” Chandigarh Meteorological Department Director Surinder Pal said.

Over 22,000 cases of stubble burning had been witnessed in Punjab and more than 4,200 incidents in Haryana in recent days, officials said. Even as the blame game continued over failure to check the toxic haze, the chief ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana on Saturday called for urgent intervention by the Centre to develop and implement a joint plan for a "permanent" solution to the problem.

Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar of postponing meetings with state environment ministers thrice, on September 12, October 17 and on October 19, saying either he has no time or does not consider treating the national capital's poor air quality a priority. He also claimed that with the Centre making 63,000 machines to stop stubble burning available in two years, it might take 50-60 years to implement the programme and asked "what should the people of Delhi-NCR do" during this period

Sisodia's remarks came on a day Javadekar alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was politicizing the issue by asking school students to write letters to his Punjab and Haryana counterparts over pollution caused due to stubble burning and was to trying to project the other chief minister as "villains". Javadekar said air pollution is a problem that has aggravated in the past 15 years and is now being remedied by the Narendra Modi government.

"We have started holding inter-state meetings of NCR ministers and officials. All stakeholders need to act together and not blame each other," he said, adding sustained efforts are needed to bring down pollution. Kejriwal, meanwhile, wrote to Javadekar saying air pollution "is not a Delhi specific issue, it is a North India issue and therefore, requires a North India solution under the chairmanship" of the Union Minister.

Referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit, he said India's image will be affected due to the current situation. "I wonder what impression would she (Merkel) carry of India with such high levels of pollution," Kejriwal said.

"The images of international cricketers playing cricket wearing masks does not create a good image of India," he said. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also wrote to Javadekar requesting him to convene a meeting of chief ministers of Delhi and neighboring states to prepare a joint strategy to address the problem of severe pollution in the NCR region.

Without naming anyone, Khattar also criticized the "growing tendency" on the part of some stakeholders to "play petty politics" on the issue. The AAP government in Delhi has been blaming BJP-ruled Haryana and the Congress-ruled Punjab for failing to check stubble burning which is considered one of the main contributors to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region

The Haryana chief minister, in a telephonic conversation with Javadekar earlier in the day, requested him to convene a meeting, preferably on Sunday. Khattar said the meeting of all chief ministers and environment ministers of the states concerned would help evolve an actionable plan and a joint strategy to address the serious situation.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh too stressed on the need for the Centre's urgent intervention, underscoring that his state was not oblivious to the misery of people in the national capital, "whatever many around the country might have been led to believe.” He also noted that the Centre had failed to respond to his proposal for a separate bonus amount at the rate of Rs 100 per quintal to facilitate stubble management by the farmers.

"Is it not your government's task, Mr. Prime Minister, to search for that permanent solution, in consultation with all the other stakeholders, including Punjab, Delhi and Haryana?” he said Admitting that stubble fires, supported by the winds blowing in the wrong direction, were contributing to the toxic levels of air pollution that prevail today in Delhi, the chief minister, at the same time, noted that data from several independent agencies had pointed out that large-scale industrial pollution, the traffic overload, the excessive construction activity taking place in Delhi were equally, if not more, to blame.

But, Singh said, he took no solace from this data, nor could this blame game help any of them to “assuage our own guilt in a matter of such serious national consequence.” On Friday, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority declared the public health emergency, following which the Delhi government decided to shut all schools.

The EPCA also banned construction activities in Delhi-NCR till November 5.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)