CHANDIGARH: Orders from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have woken up the Haryana government to executing graded action plan-III guidelines for banning construction, mining, and road sweeping to bring the air quality index (AQI) under control.
The state’s AQI has dipped slightly, yet the air quality remains severe in five districts, very poor in another eight, poor in five, and moderately poor in the rest, with Panchkula recording the lowest AQI of 128 points. Faridabad had the worst air with 455 AQI, followed by Fatehabad (451), Gurugram (408), Jind (406), and Bhiwani (400).
On Wednesday, 44 CRBs (crop residue burning cases) were reported in the state, taking the season’s count to 1,649. The count declined significantly in Bahadurgarh, Karnal, Kurukshetra, and Ballabhgarh.
In the afternoon, Haryana chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal and environment secretary Vineet Garg had a videoconference with the Union secretary and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to discuss the safety measure for National Capital Region (NCR).
In the absence of mechanised cleaning of roads, barring in Gurugram and Faridabad where the civic bodies have deployed some anti-smog guns and sprinklers, sprinkling of water is being used elsewhere to settle the aerial dust.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board claimed that stone crushing, construction, and mining activities were banned in the NCR and wherever the AQI was high.