Delhi woke up under a thick blanket of smog on Monday as the city's air quality deteriorated to the 'very poor' category, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 307 on Monday morning, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The deterioration came a day after Delhi's Winter Action Plan curbs took effect, and less than a week before Diwali on November 8.
Source: Daily Jagran (CPCB data)
The slide has been steep over three days. Delhi's air was 'moderate' at 117 on Saturday, worsened to a 24-hour average of 261 in the 'poor' category on Sunday, and crossed into 'very poor' on Monday morning, ending the brief respite that last week's rainfall had brought.
Where the air was worst on Monday morning
Jahangirpuri in north Delhi recorded the city's worst air at 417, the only station in the CPCB list reported by Daily Jagran to cross into the 'severe' band, which begins at 401. Other stations in the same morning list included Mundka at 376, Bawana at 361, Chandni Chowk at 360, Dwarka and Patparganj at 355 each, Burari at 353, Okhla at 348, Wazirpur at 321, the IGI Airport area at 284, Anand Vihar at 252 and Badarpur at 251.
In its own Monday morning report, news agency ANI recorded Rohini at 396, Alipur at 375, Vivek Vihar at 370 and Narela at 363, with the ITO and Akshardham areas at 349 each and India Gate and Janpath at 335 - all in the 'very poor' band. Under the CPCB scale, an AQI of 301 to 400 is 'very poor' and 401 to 500 is 'severe'.
Source: ANI
Rs 68.4 lakh in fines on the first day of the curbs
On Sunday, the first day of enforcement, checkpoints at Delhi's borders stopped non-BS VI vehicles from entering the capital. Daily Jagran reported that enforcement teams checked over 15,000 vehicles in all, turned back 1,539 at border points and issued 566 challans for violations of Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) norms. Fines collected till 5 pm on Sunday totalled Rs 68.4 lakh - Rs 56.6 lakh in PUCC penalties, Rs 2 lakh for border-entry violations and Rs 9.8 lakh as environmental compensation for construction and demolition violations.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a post on X on Sunday that 14,930 vehicles were checked on November 1, 566 PUCC challans were issued and 300 sites were inspected, ANI reported. 'Our teams are enforcing vehicle entry restrictions, checking PUC compliance and tackling construction dust. The quest for clean air needs our collective efforts,' Sirsa said. The Delhi Traffic Police separately said it checked 7,279 vehicles between midnight and 8 pm on November 1, returned 714 and impounded 38, and held a coordination meeting with police officials from neighbouring districts on Sunday.
Monday's reading is a new development in the pollution episode that began on Sunday, when the AQI hit 261 - the season's worst at that point - as the Winter Action Plan measures, which run in phases between November 1 and February 28, began with border checks on vehicles, action against construction dust and PUCC enforcement.
The Centre's Air Quality Early Warning System had forecast 'poor' air for Monday and Tuesday, with a possible deterioration to 'very poor' by Wednesday, and a 'poor' to 'very poor' outlook for the following six days. Monday morning's citywide reading of 307 has already put Delhi in the 'very poor' band at the start of that forecast window.