Cabinet meet on air pollution falls victims to OROP slugfest

As the city continued to gasp for breath, a key Cabinet meeting of the Delhi government to chart out a battle plan to curb dangerous levels of air pollution had to be sacrificed due to a high voltage political drama on the issue of one rank, one pension.

All the Cabinet ministers were scheduled to discuss the issue of air pollution at 4 pm, but the meeting had to be cancelled following the brief detention of deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia when he was going to meet the family members of the 70-year-old ex-serviceman who committed suicide over the issue of one rank, one pension. “We are having to postpone the Cabinet meeting. Why Because the Centre has resorted to hooliganism,” Mr Kejriwal said. Mr Kejriwal himself was detained by the police later in the evening.

Even three days after Diwali festivities, the national capital resembled a “gas chamber” as it came under a thick cover of pollutant-laden smog of scary proportions, forcing the residents to inhale “severe” quality air.

The city’s toxicity level recorded a new high on Wednesday since October 30 with air quality-monitoring agencies asserting that the pollution level will remain “severe” for the next couple of days due to adverse climatic conditions.

The city witnessed low visibility due to higher concentration of pollutants hanging in the air.

Pune-based SAFAR said north-westerly wind blowing from the areas of Punjab and Haryana, where stubble burning is in full swing, were to be largely blamed for the extremely high level of pollutants in the air, and the situation will persist for at least one more day.

SAFAR’s mobile app, that issues advisories to people based on prevailing air quality, had the quality index at 473, slightly short of 500, the maximum limit.

This coupled with hostile weather conditions like cool temperature and nearly zero wind movement were the major factors identified by experts for pollution level continuing to be on the higher side.

“About the time when firecracker emissions from Delhi Sky was to dissipate, wind direction in the evening of November 1 became north-westerly for few hours before settling down to north-easterly (which was supposed to be expected) this morning,” SAFAR said.

The peak levels of pollution (PM2.5 and PM10), recorded over 10 times the safe limit during the morning hours, gradually came down across monitoring stations as the day progressed, but saw a sudden spike after evening. The safe limits of these microscopic particles are 60 and 100 micrograms per cubic metre respectively.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Air Quality Index touched the figure of 494 on Wednesday, which comes under the “severe” category. Its data showed that air quality at Anand Vihar was the worst in the national capital on Wednesday. The index stood at 445 on Monday and 389 on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the air quality had improved a little to “very poor” category.

In addition, emissions from vehicular traffic and burning of agricultural residue in neighbouring states are adding to the pollution. “Wind speed is zero; so is vertical wind speed. And the bursting of firecrackers, apart from pollution by vehicles and power plants, are contributory factors,” Vivek Chattopadhyay, a member of Centre for Science and Environment said.