North, central India continue to gasp as air quality plummets; Delhi AQI ‘poorest’ in five years post Diwali
FirstpostDelhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai has blamed the BJP for the defying of cracker ban by people, alleging that the saffron party made them burst firecrackers on purpose New Delhi/Lucknow: After the rampant cracker bursting on Diwali despite restrictions in place, air quality deteriorated in many parts of north and central India, including the national capital where it was the poorest in five years post the festival with a rise in stubble burning in neighbouring states compounding the pollution woes. Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai blamed the BJP for the defying of cracker ban by people, alleging that the saffron party made them burst firecrackers on purpose, as the city’s air quality index entered the ‘severe’ category on Diwali night and continued its upward trend to reach 462 at noon on Friday. The ministry of earth sciences’ air quality forecast agency SAFAR, stated that stubble burning accounted for 36 percent of Delhi’s PM2.5 on Friday, the highest so far this season. In West Bengal, except for some pockets in south Kolkata very few cases of firecracker bursting were reported from the state capital on Kali Puja night even though the air quality in the metropolis dipped from moderate to poor, a West Bengal Pollution Control Board official said.