AIR TO TURN FOUL AGAIN

NEW DELHI: The city’s air quality, which had improved to moderate levels Thursday, could slip back to ‘very poor’ category once again over the weekend. “The air quality is likely to slip back to the very poor category due to bad weather conditions such as low wind speed, high moisture levels and a dip in the temperature” said a scientist from SAFAR.

teams comprising officials from the Union government, the Delhi government and the civic bodies found that VRS were not installed in at least 11 petrol pumps, belonging to one of the three companies, in Delhi-ncr.

Hindustan Times had earlier got in touch with the companies, when the CPCB had issued showcause notices against them. None of the three companies, however, had responded to HT’S mails. Now, the CPCB has uploaded the letters sent to the oil companies on their website.

The CPCB official said, “The responses of the companies filed against the showcause notices were found to be unsatisfactory. They were each called for a hearing by CPCB. Later, the CPCB had gone for a random check and found VRS were not installed. Only after that were they fined.”

On Friday, IOCL refused to comment saying they wont be able to react ‘immediately’. A BPCL spokesperson said: “We are going through the order. Appropriate action will be taken.” HPCL, however, could not be contacted over the phone.