As Delhi continues to choke with ‘hazardous’ air pollution, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday asked the Delhi government to urgently close all schools up to Class 5. The party also slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for allowing the city to devolve into a gas chamber.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that both private and government schools should be shut down for the safety of children, given the alarming level of air pollution in the national capital and its adjoining regions.
Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution, Sachdeva added, pointing out the lack of government clinics providing essential treatments to mitigate these dangers.
He also emphasised that the Delhi government has “utterly failed” to manage pollution levels in the national capital, citing that PM 2.5 concentrations have soared beyond 400 and PM 10 levels exceeded 1,000.
The national capital saw its first dense fog of the season on Wednesday, with air quality recorded as “very poor.”
The air quality index (AQI) had surged to 366 according to real-time data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 9 am.
“Delhi is now a gas chamber where people are choking and suffering from respiratory issues,” he stated.
Delhi AQI over 1600? Swiss monitor’s reading suggests
Delhi overtook Pakistan’s Lahore as the world’s most polluted city in Swiss group IQAir’s live rankings, with an air quality index (AQI) score of more than 1,000, considered “hazardous”, but India’s pollution authority said the AQI was around 350.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the pollution had reduced visibility to 100 metres (328 feet) in some places by around 8 a.m. (0230 GMT).
The IMD said the city’s temperature dropped to 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday morning from 17.9C on Tuesday and may fall further as sunlight remains cut off due to the smog.
Delhi battles severe pollution every winter as cold, heavy air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires set off illegally in the adjoining, farming states of Punjab and Haryana.