His air quality continued to deteriorate on Sunday as a blanket of dense smog covered the city. By 9 p.m. at Anand Vihar, it had reached “severe”, as per the Air Quality Index or AQI that logged up to 424. Delhi witnessed the worst air quality ever recorded in the country.
The levels of pollution continue to stay higher in a large number of places throughout the city due to pollution caused during Diwali festivals. According to news agency PTI, 15 air quality monitors showed AQI reading to more than 400 which essentially means the AQI measures severe level of pollution in the atmosphere.
Places or stations recording their air qualities as severe were Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, NSIT Dwarka, Najafgarh, Nehru Nagar, Okhla Phase 2, Patparganj, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Wazirpur, and Vivek Vihar.
City’s 24-hour average AQI recorded at 4 p.m. stood at 382, deteriorating from 316 the previous day. Air quality did see some brief improvement with the help of winds but the pollution levels skyrocketed in the aftermath of Diwali festivities when the ban on firecrackers was virtually disregarded.
National capital also witnessed its lowest night temperature so far with dense smog that was impeding sunlight during the day.
The weather department reported that the minimum temperature on Sunday was 16.5 degrees Celsius, which is 1.2 degrees above normal, while the maximum temperature touched 33.2 degrees Celsius, which is 2.7 degrees above normal. Shallow fog conditions are also expected to continue into Monday, the agency added.
Atishi, the Chief Minister of Delhi, announced that she would redeploy approximately 10,000 civil defense volunteers in the next two or four days to assist a bunch of agencies in their effort against air pollution. The employees were relieved from their role as bus marshals last year after they received objections from the revenue and finance departments.
“I would like to tell the BJP leaders to halt their dirt politics on bus marshal’s issue. They were barred from receiving salary since last April and are finally expelled in October this year under BJP’s conspiracy,” claimed Atishi.
