Slight improvement in Delhi's air quality, moves to ‘very poor’ category

The air quality in the national capital improved for the first time, moving to the "very poor" category, days after it had been hovering over "severe".

Meanwhile, the temperatures dipped two degrees below normal on Thursday.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI was clocked 371 at 4 pm. The maximum and minimum temperatures dipped a degree and two degrees respectively, recorded at 27 and 10.2 degrees, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Central government has announced staggered work timings for its employees.

The Department of Personnel and Training stated that, seeing the pollution level in the national capital, the central government, ministries and the organisations are asked to follow the steps in GRAP-IV (Graded Response Action Plan). The office will have staggered timing till the GRAP Stage IV is in force.

The timing will be from 9 am to 5 pm or 10 am till 6.30 pm. The department stated that staff coming to office by their personal vehicles would be encouraged to use the public transport.

While the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) convened a review meeting in which sector-specific actions were undertaken by the governments of NCR states.

The commission directed the Punjab Government to reduce the time for verifying stubble burning fire incidents from 48 to 24 hours to expedite enforcement actions. Both Punjab and Haryana were also instructed to address discrepancies in Environmental Compensation (EC) data.

All NCR states were urged to strictly implement GRAP measures across their jurisdictions. Special attention was directed toward Delhi's pollution hotspots, with Delhi Government and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) tasked to prioritise these areas while adhering to GRAP guidelines.

The NCR states were instructed to stop all construction and demolition activities violating GRAP provisions. Along with this, a special drive was called for impounding end-of-life (EoL) vehicles, with data to be collated and submitted to CAQM. Enhanced efforts were also mandated for auditing Pollution Under Control (PUC) centres and penalising vehicles without valid PUC certificates.

The Delhi Government and Delhi Traffic Police were instructed to ensure that the non-permitted vehicles were checked at Delhi’s borders. Congestion caused by road barricades must be minimised, with patrolling vehicles deployed for immediate corrective action, it said.

All NCR states were directed to expedite the collection of pending ECs from violators and report their progress daily to CAQM.

Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan were instructed to ensure compliance with theSupreme Court directives on regulating brick-kilns.