Delhi-NCR air quality worsens to 'severe' category as Supreme Court's 'green' Diwali order squarely flouted

Hours after the Diwali night, the AQI stood in Delhi-NCR at 451 at 7 am on Tuesday as a thick smog blanketed the air as an impact of relentless, uncontrolled bursting of crackers, which have now emerged as a key mode to celebrate the Hindu festival.

Noida and Gurgaon, the cities which also form the NCR, were no better with AQI standing at 407 and 402 respectively.

The AQI was noted as "severe" in various monitoring stations that included Ashok Vihar (445), Anand Vihar (440), Wazirpur (435) and Dwarka (422).

Though the bursting of firecrackers used to remain banned in Delhi-NCR that battles air pollution in this part of the year, the Supreme Court had allowed the bursting of green crackers in the national capital region in two time frames on October 18-20.

The bursting of green crackers was allowed at 6-7 am and 8-10 pm.

But the rules were flouted with no administration taking reign of the situation as firecrackers continued to burst throughout the night worsening the air quality.

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "Why didn't artificial rain happen today? The government said that after Diwali, we would conduct artificial rain and fix all the pollution.

"Did artificial rain happen? Does the BJP government want people to fall ill... The BJP government has collusion with private hospitals; they will shut down the government hospitals."