New Delhi: The air quality in the national capital moved to 'poor' category with an Air Quality Index of 295 on Sunday morning as per the Central Pollution Control Board data, reported news agency PTI. The AQI was very poor in 15 of the 37 monitoring stations. The AQI was at 399 in NSIT Dwarka, 346 in Shadipur, 342 in Anand Vihar, 328 in RK Puram and 326 in Jahangirpuri.
An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".
As per the Indian Meteorological Department, the minimum temperature in the city settled at 12.6 degrees, a notch below the season's average while the relative humidity was recorded at 83 per cent at 8:30 am.
Strong winds in the region have marginally improved the air quality but farm fires in Punjab prevented a significant improvement in the air quality.
Officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said winds gusting up to 18-20 kmph barrelled through the city during the day, improving air quality and visibility levels, reported news agency PTI.
For farm fires, the National Human Rights Commission on Saturday said that the farmers cannot be blamed for the situation as they are forced to burn the stubble due to the “failure” of four state governments.
In view of the rise in pollution in the Delhi-NCR, the NHRC had recently asked the Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to appear before it on November 10 to discuss the matter.
The Commission has now raised several queries to the governments, while asking the chief secretaries concerned to submit their response or affidavits "within four days positively" and to remain present again either in person or hybrid mode on November 18 for the next hearing on the matter.