Despite witnessing a drop by 41 points in the average Air Quality Index (AQI), the national capital’s bad air woes continued to haunt the citizens, with AQI remaining in the ‘severe’ category on Wednesday.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi average AQI on Wednesday pegged at 419, reeling in severe category, with the observations from 37 monitoring stations across the city. The pollution monitoring agency said there were five places in the city where the AQI was in the ‘severe plus’ category, with levels above 450. Wazirpur had the highest pollution level at 461 at 4 pm, followed by Bawana at 459, Mundka 457, Alipur and Ashok Vihar- 452.
Residents of the city continued to complain of issues such as allergic cough, itching in eyes and spike in other respiratory issues. According to the CPCB, the present air quality of the city, which is under the severe category, is bad enough to affect healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.
Talking to this newspaper, many people expressed regret over the present air situation and raised questions as to why the governments could not come up with something concrete to avoid the present medical emergency like conditions. As compared to Tuesday, more people were seen wearing masks and N- 95 respirators to keep them safe from the ill effects of spiked pollutants in the city’s air.
Restrictions and measures implemented under the anti- pollution Graded Response Action Plan’s (GRAP) all stages, starting from I to IV are strictly being observed by the concerned departments and agencies across the city.Transport Department and Delhi Traffic Police teams were visible at entry points and several places in the city checking the restricted vehicles under the GRAP.
Truck mounted water sprinklers and mechanised sweeping machines seem to have become a common sight on the city’s roads with maximum traffic, deployed to mitigate pollutants.