Delhi's air quality severe again as govt suggests WFH

The air quality in the national capital deteriorated to the severe category on Tuesday and the Delhi government suggested implementing work from home policy in Delhi-National Capital Region and closing down industries as part of measures to deal with the pollution crisis during a meeting with other northern states.

The Supreme Court, which had instructed the Commission For Air Quality Management to hold the joint meeting regarding the pollution levels in Delhi, will hear the matter on Wednesday.

Delhi's air quality was again in the severe category with the 24-hour average AQI recorded at 403 after remaining in the 'very poor' category till Tuesday morning, when the AQI was recorded at 396.

The air quality index in neighbouring cities was also in the 'very poor category -- Ghaziabad (356), Greater Noida (361), Gurugram (369) and Noida (397) -- at 4 pm.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor SAFAR, the AQI will likely remain at the lower end of 'severe' on Wednesday.

'Surface winds are likely to be very calm with a low ventilation index pushing AQI to severe by tomorrow and fluctuate between severe to an upper end of very poor thereafter until November 18.

'Intrusion of stubble burning related pollutants into Delhi is not likely for the next two days due to unfavorable (winds coming from east direction),' it said.

The effective farm fire count has reduced to 1,820 and its contribution to Delhi's PM2.5 on Tuesday was 8 per cent.

The peak in fire count appears to have reached last week and fire counts are now starting to show a declining trend which is delayed by about one week from the previous year due to late withdrawal of the monsoon, it said.

A visible improvement in Delhi's air quality was recorded on Sunday although it was in the 'very poor' category.

The national capital had recorded a 24-hour average AQI of 330 on Sunday as against 473 the previous day as emissions from farm fires in Haryana and Punjab had dropped significantly.

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'.

The Delhi government had ordered the closure of physical classes in schools, colleges and other educational institutions for a week from Monday. All government offices, agencies and autonomous bodies, except those involved in essential services, have been asked to work from home.

After the Supreme Court's direction, officers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to check pollution.

"In this meeting, on behalf of the people of Delhi, we proposed that work-from-home be implemented, all construction work and industries in the Delhi-NCR region be shut for the meantime.

"The other states presented their proposals too, we're awaiting the minutes of the meeting at the moment. We will proceed further after receiving the Commission's decision," Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said in a briefing.

He hoped that the meeting will result in a joint action plan for reducing pollution levels.

The minister urged the Union Environment minister to clarify on the issue of the contribution of stubble burning to the pollution levels in the national capital, claiming that the Centre's affidavit on the issue has created confusion.

"In a single affidavit itself, the central government has submitted in the Supreme Court two contrasting statements. One says that stubble burning contributes to four percent of the pollution in Delhi-NCR while in the same affidavit, the other statement indicates that a meeting was held a day earlier in which it was told that the contribution of stubble-burning in Delhi's pollution is 35 to 40 percent," he said.

He said clarification on the issue is necessary so that the right strategy can be framed to deal with pollution.

"Because if we were to strategise considering the contribution of stubble burning to be four percent, the result would be different from what they would've been had we considered the contribution to be 40 percent," he said.

The minister also said that the data of SAFAR presents a different picture.

Citing SAFAR's data, he said that Diwali was on November 4 and SAFAR's assessment says that on November 4, the contribution of stubble was 25 per cent, 36 per cent on November 5, 41 per cent on November 6, 48 per cent on November 7, 30 per cent on November 8, 27 per cent on November 9 and 10, 26 per cent on November 11, 35 per cent on November 12, 31 per cent on November 13, and 12 per cent on November 14.

"If we were to consider the average of the data from November 4 to November 14, it is around 31 percent. This data is also from the central government, and the data which has been handed over inside the court is also from the central government.

"My request to the Union Environment Minister would be that this situation should be clarified at the earliest so that we can devise the right strategy regarding pollution, and in the future, we can all come together to find an immediate and permanent solution to it," he said

The Delhi government had informed the Supreme Court that it is ready to take steps like complete lockdown to control air pollution but such a step would be meaningful if it is implemented across the NCR areas in neighbouring states.

But on Tuesday, Brijesh Goyal, chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI), said lockdown is not the solution to the problem of pollution and it will not only hurt the economy a lot but will also affect the employment of people in this wedding season.

Environmental experts believe that there will be no benefit from it, he contended.

Rai also announced that the second phase of the 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign will be run from November 19 to December 3.

Meanwhile, mercury was gradually falling in the national capital with the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded at 27 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average, and 10 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal.