The AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships is taking place in an indoor stadium from Thursday through to November 24 but teams are complaining about a toxic smog hanging over the city, caused by seasonal burning of crop stubble and emissions from vehicles and industry.
The Election Commission of India has announced that the Delhi Assembly elections will be held on February 5, 2023, with the counting of votes scheduled for February 8. The last date to file nominations is January 17, and the scrutiny of nominations will be done by January 18. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until January 20.
Authorities have suspended civil construction works in Delhi and Haryana as part of emergency measures to improve air quality.
The Delhi government has lifted the ban on construction and demolition activities in view of an improvement in the air quality and inconvenience caused to workers, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Monday.
Delhi is witnessing an "emergency situation" due to alarming pollution level, the Centre on Saturday said and called a meeting of environment ministers of all neighbouring states on Monday to curb stubble burning by farmers which has made Delhi a "gas chamber".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced various emergency measures, including closure of schools for a week, ban on construction activities and work from home for government employees, to deal with the pollution crisis faced by the city.
The overall AQI deteriorated further and touched the 268 mark, which falls in the poor category.
The increase in stubble burning has kicked off a political slugfest, with Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday saying that there had been a 19 per cent rise in farm fires over 2021 in Punjab and that the Aam Aadmi Party had turned the national capital into a gas chamber.
Air quality in different parts of Mumbai dipped to nearly poor levels on Monday, December 30, 2024 prompting the civic authorities to call for strict pollution control measures, including the halting of construction activities.
Firecracker bursting till late Sunday night led to a spike in pollution levels amid low temperatures.
Temperatures are likely to remain in a similar range until Thursday, with a gradual fall expected from June 13.
The air quality in Delhi remained poor Sunday with drop in wind speed even as authorities predicted further fall in air quality index of the national capital in the coming days.
The news may come as a relief to the Delhi government, whose odd-even traffic rule is set to be rolled out from January 1.
The PM2.5 level (presence in the air of particles with a diametre of less than 2.5 micrometres) touched a new high at 158 as authorities predicted further deterioration of air quality in the coming days.
Delhi's air quality improved for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded in the "moderate" category at 165. This marks a significant improvement from the "poor" category recorded on Tuesday. Several restrictions imposed under Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) were lifted, but some restrictions under Stage 2 remain in place. The Decision Support System (DSS) has not been updated since Friday, with technical difficulties hindering the update of data for the last six days.
The Taj Mahal in Agra was engulfed in a layer of haze on Monday morning amid the rise in air pollution levels, with tourists unable to believe their eyes.
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A Delhiite himself, Shikhar Dhawan was on Tuesday candid in his admission that the city's air quality is poor, but insisted that it cannot come in the way of going about their job of playing as professional cricketers.
Delhi's toxic air has left some of the women boxers, gathered in the city for the AIBA World Championship, gasping for breath but Indian people's renowned hospitality is providing some comfort.
"We have to make government responsible for this," the bench said and asked, "Why can't govt machinery stop stubble burning?"
A Dalit student at Delhi University's Shaheed Bhagat Singh College has filed a police complaint alleging that its principal hurled casteist slurs and assaulted him after he was falsely accused of sending obscene messages on the official WhatsApp group of his department. The student, a third-year BA Hindi Honours student, claimed the incident caused him mental trauma and defamation. He has also written to the University Vice-Chancellor and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, seeking action against those involved. The principal has denied the allegations, claiming the student was being manipulated by a faculty member against whom an inquiry is underway.
'If we don't control the additional pollutants that come from various human activities then, the pollution level will not come down.'
Curbs under Stage III include a ban on non-essential construction and demolition, closure of stone crushers and mining activities in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).
Noting the pendency of issues related to firecrackers before the Supreme Court, the Delhi high court on Thursday refused to entertain a petition challenging Delhi Pollution Control Committee's complete ban on sale and use of all kinds of firecrackers.
A directive this year to ban all vehicles older than 15 years has been delayed and previous city governments have often ignored court orders to address pollution woes.
The smog reduced the visibility to merely 300 meters in the morning affecting traffic, an official of the India Meteorological Department said.
'When you are travelling in Mumbai when the air quality is bad, you feel suffocated.' 'You may feel uncomfortable breathing Delhi air, but the level of discomfort is higher in Mumbai.'
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La Nina, construction worsen air quality; spike in respiratory ailments.
'They did the right thing if they were protesting against it. Medically there was no reason to continue the match; it must have been taken off'
The city's overall air quality index stood at 306 on Friday.
The clarification by the top court, which had in 2018 banned the bursting of conventional firecrackers to curb air and sound pollution, will have ramifications across the nation.
The official data maintained by the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research put the condition at severely polluted. The Particulate Matter 2.5 level was recorded at 146 while the PM 10 was at 233 in New Delhi.
At 9 am on Tuesday, the overall AQI of Delhi docked at 381, which falls in the 'very poor' category.
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Monday said the ban on construction and demolition activities in Delhi will continue till further orders in view of the high air pollution levels.
Uncertainty looms over Lanka-Bangla World Cup clash due to severe air pollution
Air pollution has fallen, but rivers remain dirty, says Rema Hanna, an academic who has studied pollution in India.
Delhi's air quality was again in the severe category with the 24-hour average AQI recorded at 403 after remaining in the 'very poor' category till Tuesday morning, when the AQI was recorded at 396.
