Amid rising pollution levels in the national capital post Diwali, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday flagged off a special water sprinkling campaign from Delhi Secretariat.

Announcing that 70 mobile anti-smog guns have been deployed in 70 assembly constituencies to sprinkle water across Delhi to reduce dust pollution, Rai said, “We saw that during rain the dust pollution had reduced. Now that the effect of rain is gradually reducing we are increasing this campaign to sprinkle water across Delhi.”

In a post on X, the Delhi environment minister said, “In view of the pollution situation, special water sprinkling campaign has been started in entire Delhi. Under this campaign, anti-smog guns were sent to all 70 assemblies of Delhi today.”

Earlier in the day, he had said that “the rules and restrictions imposed under GRAP-4 in Delhi will continue for now”.

On Monday, the Delhi environment minister announced extension of the anti-dust campaign to 15 more days. “The anti-dust campaign is being extended for 15 more days. Under this campaign, a fine of Rs 2 crore 47 lakh has been imposed so far. It has also been decided to run an anti-open burning campaign from November 14 to December 14,” he said.

Rai further said 375 water sprinklers will be used as part of the water sprinkling campaign since the effect of rains has now subsided in the national capital.

Meanwhile, according to the data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) has been recorded at 373 in the city. The AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’; 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’; 101 and 200 ‘moderate’; 201 and 300 ‘poor’; 301 and 400 ‘very poor’; and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

While the Anand Vihar station was in the ‘severe’ category with PM 10 at 464 and PM 2.5 at 438, the Carbon monoxide (CO) was at 106, under ‘moderate’ category, at 9 am. At the Bawana station PM 2.5 reached 446, in the severe category and PM 10 at 322 was in the ‘very poor’ category, while the CO reached 82, in satisfactory levels and NO2 at 20, in the ‘good’ category. At the Dwarka sector-8 station, the PM 2.5 reached 474, in the severe category while PM 10 was at 410 also under the ‘severe’ category this morning.

The air quality at the Indira Gandhi International Airport T3 area was in the ‘severe’ category with PM 2.5 at 417 and PM 10 at 244, in the ‘poor’ category while the CO reached at 100, under satisfactory category. At ITO station, the PM 2.5 was at 436, in the ‘severe’ category and PM 10 was at 316, under ‘very poor’ category.

The NO2 reached 143, under moderate levels, while CO was at 90, in satisfactory levels.

The PM 2.5 at Jahangirpuri was recorded at 404, under ‘severe’ category, while PM 10 reached 378, placing it under the ‘very poor’ category. The Carbon monoxide reached 78, in ‘satisfactory’ levels and NO2 was at 13, in the ‘good’ category.