The situation remained uneasy for residents of the national capital on Saturday with the average air quality index witnessing no improvement, reeling under the ‘very poor’ category.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the average AQI based on the readings in the past 24 hours, was 316 on Saturday at 4 pm, according to the pollution monitoring agency’s daily bulletin.
Many people said that they are experiencing discomfort while breathing, and are also sneezing and coughing, while there is a burning sensation in the eyes.
Several people were seen wearing masks to save themselves from the bad air, and have said that with the change in weather and drop in temperatures along with the kind of pollution, they are taking precautions against respiratory problems.
The data released by the CPCB was based on the observations from 39 air quality monitoring stations, out of the total 40 located across the city.
Anand Vihar was the only area in the city for now which recorded the air quality in ‘severe’ zone with an index value of 407 at 4 pm, as per the pollution monitoring agency.
People continue to experience mornings covered with smog around the city, while the situation is even worse in the 13 hotspots.
Talking of the city’s adjoining Delhi, Gurugram’s air was in ‘poor’ category, Ghaziabad’s AQI was ‘very poor, ‘ Noida reeled under ‘poor’ zone, while Faridabad which also shares its border with Delhi had air reeling under the ‘moderate’ quality.
The pollution monitoring agency says that when the air quality drops in the ‘very poor’ zone, people are exposed to the likelihood of ‘Respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.’
The Delhi government has started off an initiative of water sprinkling at various places to bring down the dust to mitigate the rise in pollution levels.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai has said that teams are continuously working on dust pollution, vehicular pollution and efforts are underway to curb biomass burning.
The minister has said that 200 mobile anti- smog guns have been brought on roads to control dust pollution, and now the sprinkling will be carried into 3 shifts.