(PTI)
A combination of smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and moisture turned Delhi, India’s capital city, into a “gas chamber” on Tuesday, prompting authorities to announce a series of preventive measures including a four-fold hike in parking fees and slashing of metro fares.The smog brought down visibility levels, affecting flight and train operations. The heavy air permeated living rooms and even the underground metro stations in the city making it difficult to breathe, turning eyes watery
In the evening, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced that primary schools in the national capital will remain close tomorrow The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, empowered to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), also directed the states in the region to start preparing for implementing measures like ‘odd-even’ in light of the “crisis situation”
The air quality index was in the ‘severe’, with a score of 448 in a scale of 500, category for the second time this year. Earlier, Diwali fireworks had triggered peak pollution levels on October 20.The National Green Tribunal took the governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to task, seeking to know why steps to prevent steps were not taken despite knowing well in advance that such a situation was likely to arise
