The air quality in the city deteriorated from “satisfactory” category on Tuesday to “poor” on Wednesday. It is expected to worsen further, as per official data.
“In the presence of local dry weather and north-westerly wind, local dust emission will lead to high PM10. Additional dust transport from desert areas is very likely. Fire emission from upwind region will increase PM2.5 concentration as winds are from north-west region at transport level. The overall AQI is likely to degrade to higher end of moderate or poor category for the next three days,” said monitoring agency SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).
Also, the share of stubble burning in neighbouring States in causing air pollution is likely to increase in the next two days if there is no rain.
The AQI of Delhi was 221 on Wednesday, up from 69 on Tuesday, as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s 4 p.m. bulletin, which is an average of the past 24 hours and considered the day’s AQI.
Surprise checks
Meanwhile, ₹3.07 crore has been levied as environmental compensation charge on construction and demolition sites in Delhi and NCR for violating dust control measures, as per the Commission for Air Quality Management.
Following the directions of the commission, dedicated teams were deployed in the States to inspect construction and demolition (C&D) sites.
“They have so far carried out surprise checks and inspections at more than 6,596 sites, of which 963 sites were found to be non-compliant with various C&D waste management rules and dust mitigation measures. Further, an amount of approximately ₹3.07 crore has been levied as environmental compensation charge against the defaulting agencies, besides orders for stoppage of work at 52 locations,” an official statement said.
But CAQM did not specify the time-frame during which the EC was levied.
From October 1 to October 15, 1,268 sites were inspected in Delhi and NCR and of this, 1,017 C&D sites were in Delhi, 98 in Haryana, 89 in NCR districts of Rajasthan and 64 sites in the NCR area of Uttar Pradesh, as per the CAQM.
