Air soon to be 'poor', Ministers to push 'Red Light on, Gaadi off'

New Delhi: With the air quality settling in the "moderate" category on Tuesday and monitoring agencies predicting a worsening in the coming, days, the Delhi government

is pushing hard on public participation in the campaign to reduce local vehicular emissions with Ministers and the Assembly Speaker set to hit the streets with CM Arvind Kejriwal's message — 'Red Light on, Gaadi Off".

However, the efforts of the Delhi government to control local sources of pollution might not make a difference to the air quality in the Capital with the Centre's monitoring agency SAFAR predicting a

sharp rise in stubble burning events over the next three days, during which time the

AQI in the city might drop to "poor".

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi's 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 139 on Tuesday evening.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences' forecast agency SAFAR said emission from farm fires is expected to increase due to dry weather over north India in the next three days due to which Delhi's PM2.5 pollution is likely to rise.

SAFAR said 348 fire counts were recorded over the northwest region on Monday and stubble burning accounted for eight per cent of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, to sensitise people on reducing vehicular emissions, Ministers in the Delhi government will hit the streets from today and visit key intersections to request motorists to turn off their engines at red lights.

On Wednesday, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain will participate in the campaign at the Delhi Gate traffic signal, following which Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla will also visit various crossings.