According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the national capital’s air quality declined slightly on Saturday, with the air quality index (AQI) recorded at 197 at 8.30 am, placing it in the ‘moderate’ category.
Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 265, which falls in the ‘poor’ category, while RK Puram also recorded an AQI of 247, which falls in the ‘poor’ category.
In contrast, Delhi’s IGI Airport T3 recorded an AQI of 176, which is categorized as ‘moderate’ as per CPCB data.
According to the AQI classification, readings between 0 to 50 are considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.
AQI readings in other areas on Friday were as follows: 230 in Mundka, 248 in Shadipur, 207 in Nehru Nagar, 221 in Rohini, 220 in Bawana, 245 in Jahangirpuri, 207 in Wazirpur, 201 in Ashok Vihar, 215 in Narela, 204 in Vivek Vihar, 142 in Pusa, 218 in Sirifort and 176 in Chandni Chowk. Relatively better air quality was recorded at 123 at Sri Aurobindo Marg, while at 135 at Lodhi Road, 142 at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, 141 at Mandir Marg, 144 at IIT Delhi, 190 at Dwarka-Sector 8 and 141 at IGI Airport.
On Thursday, the air quality index (AQI) of Sri Aurobindo Marg stood at 159, followed by IIT Delhi at 158, Lodhi Road at 164, IGI Airport at 165, Mandir Marg at 166, Aya Nagar at 168 and Chandni Chowk at 167, indicating relatively good air quality. Whereas, 275 of Mundka, 277 of Sirifort, 263 of Bawana, 259 of Wazirpur, 257 of Pusa, 249 of Nehru Nagar, 246 of Jahangirpuri, 238 of Rohini, 236 of Shadipur, 240 of Narela and 229 of Ashok Vihar were recorded.
Deteriorating air quality has also given rise to political debate.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had questioned the credibility of Delhi’s pollution data and objected to the BJP government’s decision to set up six new AQI monitoring centers in green and open areas of the city.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi state president Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “The intention of the Rekha Gupta-led BJP government was not to clean Delhi’s air, but to artificially reduce AQI readings by shifting the monitoring system to green areas, thereby creating a false impression of improvement without taking concrete anti-pollution measures.”
