AQI slips to ‘poor’ category at several monitoring stations across state
Kolkata: At a time when the Union Health Ministry has asked all the state governments, including Bengal, to develop district and city-level action plans for climate change and health under the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH), the air quality index (AQI) slipped into the ‘poor’ category (201-300) on Tuesday afternoon at several monitoring stations across Bengal.
According to the website of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) which comes under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the AQI in several monitoring stations in the state remained ‘poor’ at 5 pm on Tuesday.The AQI in Ballygunge was registered at 209 as per the CPCB record at 5 pm and the figure was designated as ‘poor’. The AQI was also ‘poor’ in Fort William. In contrast, the AQI level in Bidhannagar and Jadavpur remained ‘moderate’ as the figures were registered at 132 and 173 respectively at 5 pm on Tuesday.
The AQI level in other stations in Kolkata was comparatively better at 5 pm on Tuesday. The AQI in both Rabindra Bharati University and Rabindra Sarobar remained ‘moderate’. While Rabindra Bharati University registered AQI 191, Rabindra Sarobar recorded 131 AQI at 5 pm. The AQI in Victoria also registered at ‘moderate’ level (186). The pollution level in Delhi has become a concern for the Centre. The Union government has now written to the Chief Secretaries of all the states to inquire about the pollution level in respective states and what steps have been taken by the state governments to check the pollution level.
State secretariat at Nabanna has also received the letter from the Central government.
Some of the stations in the districts where AQI level remained ‘poor’ at 5 pm on Tuesday were Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas, Haldia in East Midnapore, Howrah’s Dasnagar and West Burdwan’s Durgapur and Asansol.
As per the CPCB website, the AQI level was registered at 247 at Barrackpore, 214 in Haldia, 278 in Howrah’s Dasnagar, 212 in Durgapur’s Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium and 215 in Asansol court area.
