Delhi air in 'very poor' zone, farm fire smoke may push it to 'severe'

Delhi recorded its air quality in the very poor category on Sunday morning and forecasters said slow wind speed and an increase in stubble burning especially in Punjab may push it to the severe zoneWith pollution levels worsening the Centres air quality panel on Saturday directed authorities to impose a ban on construction and demolition activities in DelhiNCR except in essential projects and other curbs under stage III of the Graded Response Action PlanDelhis overall air quality index AQI stood at 367 at 9 am The 24hour average AQI on Saturday was 397 the worst since January It was 354 on Thursday 271 on Wednesday 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday DiwaliAnand Vihar AQI 468 was the most polluted place in the capital Wazirpur 412 Vivek Vihar 423 and Jahangirpuri 407 were among the monitoring stations that recorded severe air qualityAlso read Total lunar eclipse on November 8V K Soni head of the India Meteorological Departments Environment Monitoring and Research Centre said a layer of smog lingered over the DelhiNCR on Saturday amid adverse meteorological conditions and it is likely to persist for two more days Some respite is likely from TuesdaySAFAR a forecasting agency under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences said that the share of stubble burning in Delhis pollution rose to 21 per cent on Saturday the highest this year so farIt may increase up to 40 per cent on Sunday and push the air quality into the severe zone Gufran Beig the founder project director of SAFAR saidDelhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai will chair a highlevel meeting on Sunday to discuss measures to be implemented under stage III of GRAPGRAP is a set of antiair pollution measures followed in the capital and its vicinity according to the severity of the situationIt classifies the air quality in the DelhiNCR under four different stages Stage I Poor AQI 201300 Stage II Very Poor AQI 301400 Stage III Severe AQI 401450 and Stage IV Severe Plus AQI gt450Under stage III the authorities have been asked to enforce a strict ban on construction and demolition activities in the NCR except for essential projects and nonpolluting activities such as plumbing carpentry interior decoration and electrical worksThe construction ban will not be applicable on projects concerning national security defence railways and metro rail among others However it is likely to affect housing projects in Noida Ghaziabad Gurugram and other areas Mining activities will not be allowed in the regionThe next stage in the Severe Plus category or Stage IV can include steps like a ban on the entry of trucks into Delhi allowing 50 per cent of staff to work from home in public municipal and private officesclosure of educational institutions and the plying of vehicles on an oddeven basis etcThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever