New Delhi: Delhi's air quality remained "severe" in the national Capital on Thursday, despite agencies revealing the condition may get better in the coming days. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), areas like Anand Vihar (468), Bawana (460), DTU (432), Dwarka sector - 8 (402), ITO (410) remained almost in the same category as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the state authorities have blamed stubble burning for Delhi's decreasing air quality. According to Central-government agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab have spiked by 35 per cent, and is still increasing. "The effective stubble fire counts of North West India (Haryana and Punjab) has increased from the previous day count of 1057 to 2396, as evident from SAFAR-multi-satellite fire product," forecasted the agency. SAFAR has also predicted that the stubble fire percentage contribution of Delhi's air quality will be "27 per cent on Thursday and 25 per cent on November 1."
On the other hand, CPCB led task force Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) held a meeting on Wednesday and ordered the "Punjab and Haryana take immediate stringent actions to curb stubble burning." While, it also asked authorities to strictly check for biomass burning in Delhi and other NCR. However, SAFAR forecasted that AQI may change from "severe" to "very poor" category by Friday. "A fresh Western Disturbance as a trough between 3.1 and 3.6 km above mean sea level runs roughly along the Afghan Pakistan border as of today, will approach northwest India by November 2," said a report by SAFAR.
Meanwhile, residents of Delhi have started complaning, while hospitals and clinics
have seen an increase in patients due to pollution.
Demand for air purifiers has shot up in the market, according to sellers.