Supreme Court Seeks Action Plan from CAQM Amid ‘Very Poor’ Air Quality in Delhi—Here’s Why

The Supreme Court asked the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to file an affidavit within a week with clear data and an action plan on preventive measures taken to prevent the air quality from slipping further on November 3, according to The Hindu.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai said authorities must not let pollution slide into the ‘severe’ category.

Amicus curiae and senior advocate Aparajita Singh referred to the news reports indicating that a majority of air quality monitoring stations in Delhi were not functioning on Diwali as she said that instances like these could jeopardise the implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

“There are newspapers after newspapers saying that monitoring stations are non-functional. If the monitoring stations are not even functioning, we don’t even know when to implement GRAP (graded response action plan)… Out of 37 monitoring stations, only nine were functioning continuously on the day of Diwali,” Singh submitted in an oral mentioning, reported The Hindu. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati assured the Bench that the agencies concerned would file the required report.

The court had permitted the sale and bursting of green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR during Diwali on October 15. However, due to low awareness among sellers and residents, regulations around eco-friendly fireworks remained largely on paper rather than in practice, according to The Hindu.

No Respite for Delhi

The national capital continued to see no improvement in the air quality levels on the morning of November 4 as the air quality remained in the “very poor” category with an AQI reading of 311, reported PTI.

However, four stations — Alipur (421), Wazirpur (407), Bawana (402) and Anand Vihar (412) — recorded air quality in the 'severe' category.

Seventeen monitoring stations recorded 'very poor' air quality with readings above 300, the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) Sameer app showed.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 to 100 "satisfactory", 101 to 200 "moderate", 201 to 300 "poor", 301 to 400 "very poor" and 401 to 500 "severe", as per the CPCB classification.

The minimum temperature settled at 16.5 degrees Celsius, 1.2 notches above the season's average, while the humidity was recorded at 94% at 8.30 am.

The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 29 degrees Celsius with the weather department forecasting partly cloudy sky.

(With inputs from PTI.)