NEW DELHI: The air quality of the national capital remained in the "severe" category on Saturday morning with the AQI settling at 407 at 9 am, according to the Sameer app that provides hourly updates of the national AQI published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
An air quality index (AQI) between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".
On Friday, the Delhi government banned private BS III petrol and BS IV diesel vehicles, prohibited the entry of interstate non-electric-CNG buses, certain categories of construction activities and staggered government office timings, as the city choked under 'severe'-category air pollution.
The restrictions were imposed under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) announced by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Thursday.
Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 15.3 degree Celsius, 1.8 notch above the season's average, the India Meteorological Department said.
The weather department has predicted mainly clear sky with smog or shallow fog likely in the morning or night on Saturday.
The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 33 degrees Celsius.
The humidity at 8.30 am was 94 per cent. Private BS III petrol and BS IV diesel vehicles were banned from roads with violations inviting a penalty of Rs 20,000. Diesel and petrol inter-state buses from the NCR cities to Delhi are also banned.
Haryana's Jind records AQI at 410; other parts in 'very poor' zone .
Haryana's Jind recorded its air quality index in the "severe" category while several other parts in the state and many places in Punjab witnessed air quality in the "very poor" and "poor" zones on Saturday.
Chandigarh saw some improvement in its air quality index (AQI) as it was registered at 298 at 10 am, according to the Central Pollution Control Board's Sameer app, which provides hourly updates.
For the past many days, the AQI of the Union Territory remained in the "severe" and "very poor" brackets.
Among many places in Haryana, the AQI was 410 in Jind, 392 in Bhiwani, 383 in Bahadurgarh, 357 in Panipat, 321 in Kaithal, 309 in Rohtak, 297 each in Charkhi Dadri and Gurugram, 289 in Kurukshetra, 285 in Karnal, 227 in Panchkula and 209 in Ambala.
In Punjab, Amritsar recorded its AQI at 332, Mandi Gobindgarh 233, Ludhiana 218, Khanna 181 and Rupnagar 155.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", 401 and 450 "severe" and above 450 "severe plus".
Punjab on Friday saw 238 farm fire incidents, taking the total count to 7,864.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after harvesting the paddy crop in October and November is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi.
As the window for sowing the Rabi crop, wheat, is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear the crop residue.
