Arvind Kejriwal pleads for help to save Delhi from air pollution

New Delhi : Air pollution level in Delhi has dropped to 'hazardous' level on Sunday with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 625 - the highest this year - at around 10 am. 

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, tagged the national capital as gas chamber, and said that the pollution level has reached to an unbearable stage, calling for an urgent action on this from the centre.

"Delhi suffering for no fault of theirs. Centre should take immediate steps 2 provide relief. V will support Centre in all initiatives," Mr Kejriwal tweeted.

Delhi AQI crossed 500 late on Thursday night, entering "emergency" territory for the first time since January and forcing the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) to declare a public health emergency. It improved to 407 on Saturday morning but has deteriorated steadily since. Pollution levels in neighbouring areas like Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad are as bad, with levels ranging from 400 ("severe") to 709 ("hazardous").

https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/1190880657821421570

Amid the hazardous situation in Delhi, The centre and the chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have written a letter to each other accusing them of failing to control the situation.

On Saturday, a day after Mr Kejriwal asked students to write to his counterparts in Punjab and Haryana, whom he had earlier accused of "forcing farmers to burn stubble", Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar slammed him for "politicising" the issue and said he was trying to paint them as "villains".

According to data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the contribution of stubble burning to haze and air pollution in Delhi-NCR was 46 per cent on Friday, 24 per cent on Thursday and 35 per cent on Wednesday.