New Delhi: Amid the deteriorating air quality in the national capital, Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday flagged off a ‘special water sprinkler campaign’ from the Delhi Secretariat to tackle the pollution.
The air pollution levels in the national capital and surrounding areas escalated to the 'severe' category after the Diwali celebrations.
The air quality dipped to the 'Severe' category with the air quality index (AQI) breaching the 400 mark at several places across the city on Tuesday morning.
The Supreme Court's ban on the sale of prohibited firecrackers proved ineffective as people burst crackers with gay abandon.
Speaking on the issue of air pollution, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir alleged that the Delhi government has done nothing to tackle air pollution in the past nine years.
"We should talk about the issue of pollution not only during Diwali but all around the year. Delhi Govt needs to spend on the infrastructure. In the last 9 years, no work was done on dust pollution, no vacuum cleaners or sprinkling machines were brought, and no artificial rain was done. 70% of children are on Nebulizers in Delhi," he told ANI.
A spell of rain before Diwali has brought some respite from severe pollution making air quality before the festival of lights the best in the last eight years. However, on the night of Diwali, the air quality began deteriorating.
The concentration of fine, lung-damaging particles known as PM2.5 rose by 45 per cent on Diwali as compared to 2022, said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).
In neighbouring Noida, AQI stood at 396 (Very Poor) while in Ghaziabad air quality index is at 380 (Very Poor). In Gurugram's sector-51, air quality was recorded to be in the 'Severe' category with an AQI of 430 and the same is the case in Faridabad where the AQI was at 429 in New Industrial Town observatory as of 7 am, according to CPCB.