Smog shrouds Delhi again; schools shut till tomorrow
■ Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says odd-even scheme can be extended if needed
New Delhi, Nov. 13: The noxious smog resulting from raging farm fires and unfavourable weather pushed pollution in DelhiNCR towards the “emergency” zone on Wednesday, prompting authorities to order closure of schools till November 15 — a second time in two weeks.
With the Central Pollution Control Board fearing a similar situation will prevail over the next two days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the odd-even road rationing scheme can be extended if needed. The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) also extended the restrictions on dirty-fuel based industries in DelhiNCR, hot mix plants and stone crushers till the morning of November 15, as the MeT department said strong winds are expected from Friday, which will bring down the air pollution levels to the very poor category.
The schools in the national capital will be closed on Thursday and Friday, the Delhi government said.
On November 1, the Supreme Court-mandated panel EPCA declared a public health emergency as air pollution neared the emergency levels and the administration ordered closure of schools till
November 5.
The city’s overall air quality index read 456 at 4 pm, up from 425 at 4 pm on Tuesday.
Rohini and Dwarka
Sector-8 were the most-polluted areas with an AQI of
494, followed by Nehru Nagar (491) and Jahangirpuri (488). Faridabad
(448), Ghaziabad (481), Greater Noida (472), Gurgaon (445) and Noida
(479) also choked on extremely polluted air.
In neighbouring Haryana, Hisar and Bhiwani (470) districts reported the worst air quality, followed by Jind
(445), Fatehabad (430), Sirsa (415), Rohtak (412) and Panipat (408). In
Punjab, Amritsar's AQI was 362, followed by Bathinda (333), Patiala
(285) and Jalandhar (276). An AQI between 201 and
300 is considered ‘poor’,
301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401500 ‘severe’. An AQI above
500 falls in the ‘severe plus’ category. The levels of PM
2.5 - tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream breached the emergency threshold of 300 micrograms per cubic metre in Delhi-NCR on Tuesday night and shot up to 354 micrograms per cubic metre, around six times the safe limit of 0-60, in the morning.