“Air quality in Delhi has been best this year,” says AAP leader Priyanka Kakkar

New Delhi [India]: With the overall air quality in the national capital recorded at a moderate AQI of 129 on Monday, Priyanka Kakkar, a spokesperson for the Aam Aadmi Party said that the air quality in Delhi has been the best this year.

During a press conference, the AAP Chief Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, “In 2022, the air quality in Delhi improved further by 8 per cent. In 2023, this improvement has reached 31 per cent. According to a report, in the last 8 years, excluding the COVID period, the air quality in Delhi has been the best in the year 2023.”

“This year Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change published a report in which it was said that in the last 8 years in which the Covid period was excluded, Delhi’s air was the cleanest in 2023 and had the best air quality,” she added.

While reading a real-time data report, the AAP minister shared that several cities of India were included in the list of the 100 most polluted cities in the world, but Delhi was not even among the top 50 of them.

“At 3 we have Meerut, 13 Navsari, 14 Hapur, 19 Sonipat, 23 Karnal, 24 Surat, 26 Gandhinagar, 27 Gorakhpur, 28 Muzaffarpur, 29 Thane, but Delhi is still not on the list. Then we have Panipat at 50 but not Delhi,” she said.

“It is the political will of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the consistent efforts of people of Delhi in the war against pollution that in the Economic Survey 2021-22 report, which was tabled in the Parliament recently, it was stated that between 2016 and 2021, PM2.5 concentration (in Delhi) was reduced by 22 per cent, whereas PM10 concentration reduced by 27 per cent,” she added.

As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the overall air quality in the national capital on 9 October continued to remain in the moderate category with an AQI of 129

According to the AQI scale, the air quality check between 0 and 50 are considered “good”, 51 and 100 are “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 are “moderate”, 201 and 300 are “poor”, 301 and 400 are “very poor”, and 401 and 450 are “severe” and “severe+” when AQI exceeds 450.

Earlier last week, the Centre’s air quality panel directed authorities in the National Capital Region to enforce a ban on coal usage in hotels and restaurants and take punitive measures against polluting industries and thermal power plants as the air quality in Delhi plunged into the “poor” category.

This action came as part of the government’s pollution control plan known as the ‘Graded Response Action Plan’ (GRAP) which is implemented in the Delhi-NCR to combat air pollution during the winter season.