The national capital on Saturday battled ‘very poor’ air quality with an average Air Quality Index (AQI) rising to 304, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) bulletin.

The data released by the pollution monitoring agency was based on 37 out of 40 air monitoring stations across Delhi.

Across the city, 22 areas breathed ‘very poor’ air quality where the AQI levels shot above 300.

The worst air quality was recorded at Jahangirpuri with an AQI of 380, reeling under ‘very poor’ category.

Similarly, Wazirpur recorded an AQI of 373, Mundka 355, Anand Vihar 356, Bawana 351, Dwarka sector-(8) 348, Shadipur 344,
Burari crossing 342, Nehru nagar 342 and Punjabi Bagh 335.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, who led the ‘Red Light on Gaadi Off’ campaign at Barakhamba Road on Saturday also cautioned the people of the rise in pollution in the upcoming days.

While speaking to the media on the sidelines of the event, Rai said that pollution is likely to rise in the days to come due to unfavourable meteorological conditions in the city.

He also urged the people to take part in the anti-pollution campaign run by the Delhi government.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has slammed the Centre over the rise in air pollution.

AAP senior leader and national spokesperson Reena Gupta said the people in north India are suffering due to air pollution but the Central government lacks any action plan to control it.

Referring to a report, she said: “In the list of 50 most polluted cities, 39 cities feature from India only. Among these 39, 20 most polluted cities are from UP but one would be shocked to know that the BJP-ruled UP government hasn’t ever mentioned air quality.”

Gupta, who was addressing a press conference here, further alleged that 70 per cent of Delhi’s total pollution was coming from outside, most of it from the BJP-ruled States.

She said there are 2,000 brick kilns in the NCR, operating with old technology till date, and out of them 150 kilns are in Ghaziabad, and 250 are in Muzaffarnagar.

All the smoke from these kilns comes to Delhi, Gupta added.

After the NGT order for running industries on clean fuel, all industries in Delhi are running on Piped Natural Gas (PNG), but nothing has been done in the NCR so far, she alleged.