Delhi’s air quality index slipped further into the poor category as the national capital’s minimum temperature settled at 20.9 degree Celsius. At 9 am on Saturday, the AQI stood at 231. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

On Friday, amid poor air quality, the Centre’s air quality panel swung into action and ordered the local authorities in the National Capital Region to ban coal usage in hotels and restaurants and crack down on polluting industries. These measures are part of the pollution control plan called the ‘Graded Response Action Plan’.

Invoking Stage 1 of GRAP, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) said the measures were ordered to arrest deterioration of air quality in the region.

“It is essential to invoke Stage-I of GRAP immediately throughout the entire NCR to take steps to prevent further deterioration of air quality in the region,” the commission said in a statement on Friday.

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GRAP categorizes actions into four stages: Stage I – ‘Poor’ (AQI 201-300), Stage II – ‘Very Poor’ (AQI 301-400), Stage III – ‘Severe’ (AQI 401-450), and Stage IV – ‘Severe Plus’ (AQI > 450).

The India Meteorological Department predicted the capital’s maximum temperature is likely to settle at around 37 degree Celsius.

The sudden dip in air quality comes after Punjab started to witness a surge in the number of farm fires.

The Air Quality Index in many parts of Punjab deteriorated to moderate levels on Friday.

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The AQI levels are measured at six places by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), with Bathinda being the worst at 191. On October 6, a total of 91 fresh cases of farm fires were detected by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), taking the total number of stubble-burning cases to 845 in this harvesting season.

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In the last six days alone, Amritsar district has recorded 345 active fires. On October 6, Amritsar reported 41 fires, followed by Tarn Taran (15), Patiala (10) and Sangrur (6).

With inputs from PTI