The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on concerned state governments of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana over severe air pollution in the region. Delhi's air quality on Wednesday improved further from 'severe plus' to 'poor' as schools reopened in the national capital. This brought relief to people after a week as the AQI was recorded at 249 and the concentration of the particulate matter reading PM 10 at moderate levels. The PM 10 count is at 178 in the moderate category, seen after many days and the PM 2.5 count is at 105 in the poor category. There is a huge improvement over Tuesday's air quality also. The AQI stood at 356, PM 10 at 278 and PM 2.5 at 193 in the very poor category, on Tuesday. The overall situation is, however, grim.
Supreme Court's 5-point reprimand on Delhi pollution:
1. Can you permit people to die like this due to pollution? Can you permit the country to go back by 100 years?
2. We have to make government responsible for this. Why can't government machinery stop stubble burning.
3. If you (state governments) don't bother about people, you have no right to be in power.
4. You just want to sit in your ivory towers and rule. You are not bothered and are letting people die.
5. You have forgotten the concept of welfare government. They are not bothered about poor people, this is very unfortunate.
While many measures have been taken by authorities, the weather conditions are playing the most important part. Despite stubble burning in Punjab at its highest of the season, the wind speed in Delhi has done the reverse and helped the AQI to improve very sharply. According to an earlier forecast by Safar India, the AQI is rapidly recovering from the severe category largely due to faster winds to flush it out. The trend seen on Wednesday also emphasises the point that stubble burning is just one factor in the overall pollution paradigm.
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