National Green Tribunal says no visible improvement in Delhi air quality, orders 'stringent measures'

livemint.com:

Delhi Pollution Control Committee, to file a fresh action taken report by November 20, news agency PTI reported. The directions were issued after the National Green Tribunal observed that there has been no "visible improvement" in the national capital's air quality, the report added. Around 9 pm on Friday, the air quality in Delhi NCR was "very poor", with the overall air quality index in the national capital recorded at 398, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The air quality falls in the "severe' category when it crosses 400 AQI. Earlier, a bench of National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava had taken suo motu cognisance of various newspaper reports about Delhi's worsening air quality. The bench had then issued notices to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Commission for Air Quality Management for NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM), PTI reported.

The bench had noted that reports were filed by the DPCC, CAQM and the Delhi government. In a recent order, the tribunal cited a CAQM report and said the AQI was 'very poor' towards the end of October in the wake of highly unfavourable meteorological and climatic conditions. Keeping this in view, restrictions under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage II were "invoked proactively" on October 21.