Air quality in Delhi back to 'Very Poor'

After docking "Poor" on Tuesday, the air quality in the national capital again deteriorated into the "Very Poor" category in most places in the region on Wednesday.

According to the Air Quality Index (AQI) data by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), major pollutant PM 10 dominated at most places. Ashok Vihar and Anand Vihar recorded docked at 309 which fell under the "very poor" category. Alipur which docked at 300 also fell under the "very poor" at 7 am.

Major pollutants PM 2.5 were at 210 in the "moderate' category and PM 10 at 204 in the "moderate" category, in Lodhi Road area.

Some areas like ITO (227), Okhla phase 2 (290) and Punjabi Bagh (286) remained in the "Poor" status.

The weather department has forecast shallow to moderate fog and wind speed of 6-8 km/hr for the next few days.

"The government should take some stern action to combat the issue of air pollution which is consistently increasing every year. The odd-even scheme is not enough; we need policies and programs to tackle this issue. Just like China which is more populous than India is taking steps against it we should too," Rashmit, a resident told ANI.

Jasmeet Singh Bhandari, another resident said that the government should not shake their hands off by putting the blame on stubble burning as it has been practised from years but the problem of pollution has increased recently.

"Farmers of Haryana and Punjab have been practising stubble burning from several years, but for the past few years, the air quality has started deteriorating to this level. The government should take strong action to curb it. Also, the odd-even scheme of the Delhi government should continue for a much longer period to control the air quality," Bhandari told ANI.

Residents in the Delhi-NCR have been gasping for fresh air due to the noxious smog that has enveloped the region mostly owing to incidents of stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab.

The situation was so grave that Parliament also debated the issue during the second day of the ongoing Winter Session.