No improvement in air quality; CM seeks Centre's intervention

New Delhi: Air quality remained in the 'severe' category in Delhi and surrounding cities on Saturday, while Haryana and Punjab too were enveloped in a blanket of haze, prompting their chief ministers to press the Centre for an urgent meeting to develop a joint action plan to address the "serious" situation due to pollution in the region.

A day after authorities decided to shut schools, ban all construction activities and declare a public health emergency, pollution level in Delhi and neighbouring cities dropped marginally as light rains helped to wash out some pollutants.

The air quality index (AQI) moderated to 402 at 8 pm as against 484 on Friday.

Amid a blame game over failure to check the toxic haze, the chief ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana on Saturday called for urgent intervention by the Centre to develop and implement a joint plan for a "permanent" solution to the problem.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar saying air pollution "is not a Delhi specific issue, it is a North India issue and therefore, requires a North India solution under the chairmanship" of the Union Minister.

Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, meanwhile, accused Javadekar of postponing meetings with state environment ministers thrice, on September 12, October 17 and on October 19, saying either he has no time or does not consider treating the national capital's poor air quality a priority.

Sisodia's remarks came on a day Javadekar alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was politicising the issue by asking school students to write letters to his Punjab and Haryana counterparts over pollution caused due to stubble burning and was trying to project the other chief ministers as "villains".

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also wrote to Javadekar requesting him to convene a meeting of chief ministers of Delhi and neighbouring states to prepare a joint strategy to address the problem of severe pollution in the NCR region.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh too stressed on the need for the Centre's urgent intervention, underscoring that his state was not oblivious to the misery of people in the national capital, whatever many around the country might have been led to believe.

In a crackdown on violators, authorities arrested 34 people including a director and three engineers, from sites of five real estate groups in Noida and Greater Noida for carrying out construction activities despite the ban.