In the last few days, more than 13 thousand passengers canceled the journey in view of the late temperatures of the national capital and the surrounding areas due to very low temperatures and fog. By Wednesday, 13,412 passengers had canceled their tickets. Trains coming from distant places like Duronto, Rajdhani, Malda, New Delhi, Farakka Express, Mumbai, Amritsar Express are in bad shape.

Along with Delhi, fog has been engulfed in many areas of Punjab on Friday morning. Apart from this, dense fog enveloped some areas of Rajasthan, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh and Tripura.

These trains are running late

The Jabalpur Nizamuddin Mahakoshal Express is running late by 5 hours. The Nanded Amritsar Sachkhand Express is running 6 hours late. Lokmanya Tilak-Haridwar Express (5 hours late). Vasco-Nizamuddin-Goa Express (2 hours late), Chennai-New Delhi GT Express (02.30 hours late), Rewa-Anand Vihar Reva Express (2 hours late), Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani (3 hours late), Howrah- New Delhi Purva Express (3 hours late), Bhagalpur Anandvihar Vikramshila Express (2 hours late).

Pollution in Delhi at critical level

At the same time, the pollution situation in Delhi also remains serious. According to data from Delhi Pollution Control Board, AQI 418 was recorded in Anand Vihar which falls in the serious category. There was AQI 372 in RKpuram which falls in the ‘very poor’ category. At the same time, AQI 429 (Gambhir) was recorded in Rohini.

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The Supreme Court said “If stubble burning takes place, the entire administration — from the Chief Secretary to the gram pradhan will be responsible”, the court said, ordering a slew of measures to bring the pollution in check. The court also sought a road-map from the Centre and the governments of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana to stop pollution on long-term. “People are dying and it can’t happen in a civilised country… Every time we are passing orders for the current issue. We have to pass orders for long-term measures,” the court said. The top court has summoned chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

The court said “Stubble burning must stop. Both Centre and the state must do this. People are dying. The sad thing is everyone in this country is interested in gimmicks,” the court said while hearing a petition from the pollution control body Environment Pollution Control Authority or EPCA on stubble burning in neighbouring states like Punjab and Haryana.

The state machinery is not acting to control pollution, the court said. “The Centre should do… Delhi must do. It can’t go on like this,” the court said, adding, “The time has come to fix responsibility for the situation that is destroying the Right to Life of citizens in gross violation of Article 21… Everybody has to be answerable — from the state to gram panchayats”.

The two-judge bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta  also held the state governments responsible for the situation. “They are interested in electioneering… they are answerable…  we will not tolerate this,” they said.

The court said wide publicity has to be given to its orders on pollution through radio, television and print media, so panchayats are aware of their responsibilities.

Delhi was grilled over its odd-even road rationing scheme which came into force on Monday. “What are you achieving by odd and even? Are you preventing running of taxis? Have you any figure on impact of odd and even?” the court asked.

The Centre said four districts in Punjab contribute to 44 per cent of stubble burning and in Delhi, construction and demolition are major sources of pollution.

The court ordered  a stop to construction and demolition work across Delhi and tasked municipal authorities with ensuring that there is no violation. A fine of Rs. 1 lakh was ordered in cases of violation.

The entry of diesel vehicles and garbage burning were also banned in the national capital. To prevent road dust, the court ordered that water be sprinkled on roads and traffic be planned, so any congestion is taken care of by the Delhi Traffic Police.

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Delhiites woke up to a smoggy morning today as the minimum temperature settled at 18.9 degrees Celsius, four notches above the season’s average. The official forecast mainly clear skies with shallow fog in the morning and strong surface winds during day with a speed of 20-25 kmph.

After Delhi, all schools up to Class 12 are closed in the National Capital Region till Tuesday following spike in pollution level.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said, “I want to appeal to the people of Delhi that since there is a blanket of smog covering northern India due to stubble burning we need to look into it….if we follow the odd even in the next few days it will help in bringing down the pollution level. We need to do this for our children and future generations.”

Meanwhile Congress MP Manish Tewari said, “If stubble burning is the problem then has anyone asked the farmer why does he burn stubble? The shroud that envelopes Delhi is the shroud a farmer wears on a daily basis.” He added that if people want clean air then they have to pay attention to farmers.

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According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the national capital’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 494 at 4pm on Sunday, the highest since November 6, 2016, when it was 497.

 Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, leaves for his office on a bicycle, from his residence in Delhi. Delhi is under a heavy shroud of smog as the pollution have reached alarming levels. Earlier today, CM Arvind Kejriwal announced that he will carpool with Delhi Ministers to commute to office. 

The heavy smog caused a major disruption at Delhi airport as 37 flights were diverted to other airports due to low visibility, officials said.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal took to twitter to reply to pollution-related queries. Replying to a Delhi citizen on stubble burning in Punjab, Kejriwal says, “Pollution due to stubble burning is not in our hands though we are distributing masks to our Delhiites to cut its ill-effects on the health of our people.” He also appealed to the people to minimise local sources of pollution. 

On Sunday, the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality check, SAFAR, said the city’s overall AQI reached as high as 708 around 5 pm, which is 14 times the safe level of 0-50. AQI or Air Quality Index is the unit to measure pollution.

0-50 – Good.

51-100 – Satisfactory.

101-200 – Moderate.

201-300 – Poor.

301-400 – Very poor.

401-500 – Severe.

500 and above – Severe plus category.

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