Delh's air quality drops to 'emergency' category first time since January
New Delhi: The blanket of haze over Delhi thickened on Friday morning with the national capital's pollution levels increasing overnight by around 50 points, taking the overall air quality index to 459.
A Central Pollution Control Board official said the AQI entered the "severe plus" or "emergency" category late Thursday night, the first time since January this year.
If the air quality persists in the "severe plus" category for more than 48 hours, emergency measures such as odd-even car rationing scheme, banning entry of trucks, construction activities and shutting down schools are taken under the Graded Response Action Plan, the official said.
The hazardous pollution levels forced a number of people to miss morning walks and other activities.
Shubhomoy Sikdar, a Delhi-based journalist, said the pollution levels gave him a throat infection and he had to skip his daily sports session.
Amanpreet Singh, a resident of Jangpura, said he has been avoiding morning and evening walks and preferring to stay indoors. The number of masked faces continued to grow as the city remained shrouded in pungent haze for the fourth consecutive day.
At 8.30 am, the capital's overall air quality index stood at 459. It was 410 at 8 pm on Thursday. All the 37 air quality monitoring stations across Delhi recorded the air quality in the severe category on Friday morning.
Bawana was the most-polluted area with an AQI of 497, followed by Delhi Technological University (487), Wazirpur (485), Anand Vihar (484) and Vivek Vihar (482).
Neighbouring Ghaziabad was the most-polluted city in the country, with the levels of PM2.5 -- tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns that can enter deep into the lungs -- reaching as high as 493.
Greater Noida (480), Noida (477), and Faridabad (432) also breathed extremely polluted air.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered good , 51-100 satisfactory , 101-200 moderate , 201-300 poor , 301-400 very poor , and 401-500 severe . Above 500 is severe-plus or emergency category.
Delhi is impatiently hoping for favourable meteorological conditions to blow away the toxic air, as health experts said the hazardous air pollution has become a serious health concern for about 2 crore residents.
"Intake of every 22 micrograms per cubic metre of polluted air is equivalent to smoking a cigarette. So whether the PM2.5 level is 700 or 300 units, the impact is still as bad. People need to take precautions, especially those suffering from asthma, bronchitis or other respiratory illness," said Dr Arvind Kumar, lung surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here.
Weather experts said increased wind speed due to a fresh western disturbance approaching the northern region would help disperse pollutants faster from Saturday.
Parents are a worried lot as health experts say children breathe faster, taking in more pollutants. Many took to Twitter to demand that schools be shut till the situation ameliorates.
"We, as parents, request Delhi government to keep all schools (pvt and govt) shut for the time being," Anil Atri, a Delhi resident, posted on the microblogging site.
"Whole Delhi air at hazardous levels now. Pollution at its peak. Activate all emergency measures. Close down schools @msisodia (sic)," another resident tweeted.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had on Wednesday said the decision to shut schools would be taken "when the need arises". In November 2017, the government had shut schools for a few days due to the deteriorating air quality.
The government, however, started distributing 50 lakh N95 masks, considered one of the good quality masks for tackling smog, among school students in Delhi on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the BCCI said it would carry on with the India-Bangladesh T20 at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Sunday, disregarding concerns raised by environmentalists about the health of players and thousands of spectators.
The AQI takes into account five chief pollutants -- particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 micrometres (PM10), PM2.5, ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO).
The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and health concerns.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
