NEW DELHI: Congress MP Sashi Tharoor on Saturday drew attention to the deteriorating air quality in Delhi-NCR by sharing a six-year-old post on social media.Tharoor shared the image with the caption, “Kab tak zindagi kaatoge cigarette bidi aur Cigar mein? Kuch din to guzaro Delh_NCR mein. (How long will you waste your life on cigarettes, bidis and cigars? Spend a few days in Delhi-NCR instead.)”
Tharoor also said that the position remains relevant even after six years.“After six years of indifference, this post is, unfortunately, disappointingly still relevant…” he said.Since Diwali, the air quality in the national capital has been either “poor” or “very poor”, occasionally deteriorating to “severe”, while the mercury continues to drop.The city’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was 311, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) hourly air quality bulletin.Air Quality The Delhi Early Warning System said that the air quality is likely to remain in the ‘very poor’ category for the next few days.Out of 38 monitoring stations in the country’s capital, 26 reported air quality in the “very bad” category. Bawana was the most polluted area, with an AQI of 366, followed by Jahangirpuri with 348.The CPCB defines the AQI ranges as follows: 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 fair, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 severe.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the minimum temperature in Delhi was 12.7 degrees Celsius, 1.6 degrees below normal, while the relative humidity at 8.30 am was 67 percent. The maximum air temperature is predicted to be around 26 degrees.A layer of shallow fog is expected to persist throughout the day, leading to low visibility in some parts of the city, the IMD said.
