Journalism of Courage
For the second day in a row, air quality in Delhi NCR dropped to 'severe' as residents woke up to a smoggy morning on Wednesday.
The Arvind Kejriwal government on Tuesday ordered primary schools
to be shut down and said they will soon reintroduce the Odd-Even Scheme. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
The Delhi government is also prepared to restrict truck movement if the Air Quality Index crosses 500. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
At 9 am today, these were the air pollution readings in different parts of the city. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
On Tuesday, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said Sisodia said that the “gas chamber” situation in Delhi was “too close to being severe” and urged the intervention of the Central government to prevent a repeat of 2016 when AQI rose to 500, its highest possible. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
As per norms, satisfactory AQI level is 100 and Delhi routinely is between 300 and 400. According to CPCB data, Tuesday was the most polluted day of this winter so far and at 448, the AQI was worse than the 403 on October 31, the day after Diwali. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Exactly a year ago to the date, the Delhi government had faced a near identical situation, with yet another episode of Delhi being shrouded in smoke, with an AQI of 500 (the highest it can be) at the Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar and Mandir Marg monitoring stations of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
In 2017, with the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan formulated by the Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), the Badarpur Power Plant has been shut since and the use of diesel gen-sets has been banned since October 17. (Source: Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
