The Centre's panel on Delhi-NCR's air quality on Sunday revoked stage 3 curbs under the Graded Response Action Plan amid an improvement in the air quality due to rainfall in the last two days.
Owing to a WD (Western Disturbance) on 11 - 12 January, there were rains around Delhi-NCR and the AQI of Delhi has shown a significant improvement owing to the favorable meteorological conditions.
"The AQI of Delhi has been recorded as 278 at 4:00 PM today which is 72 points below the 350 mark to implement the Stage-III as per the extant directives of the Supreme Court," the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said in a notification. Further, the forecast by IMD predicts another WD (Western Disturbance) in the region around 14– 15 January, 2025.
The order also said that therefore, keeping in view the disruptive nature of restrictions under Stage-III of revised GRAP impacting a large number of stakeholders and public as well as considering the trend of improvement in the average AQI of Delhi and also the forecasts by IMD/ IITM indicating the likelihood of the overall air quality of Delhi to stay in ‘Poor’/ ‘Very Poor’ category in the coming days, the CAQM Sub-Committee on GRAP unanimously decided to revoke all actions under Stage-III of revised GRAP in the entire NCR, with immediate effect.
Further, all actions under Stages II & I of revised GRAP shall however remain invoked and be implemented, monitored and reviewed by all agencies concerned in the entire NCR. Agencies shall keep strict vigil and especially intensify measures under Stages II & I of revised GRAP in order to obviate the need for re-implementation of Stage-III of revised GRAP actions in NCR.
Construction & Demolition (C&D) project sites and industrial units etc., which have been issued specific closure orders on account of violations/ non-compliances of various statutory directions, rules, guidelines etc. under no circumstances shall resume their operations without any specific order to this effect from the Commission.
While GRAP Stage-III is being revoked, keeping in view the ongoing winter season when weather conditions may not be always favourable and in order to ensure that the AQI levels do not rise further, citizens are requested to adhere to the Citizen Charter under Stages II & I of revised GRAP schedule.
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