New Delhi: The Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer App and website failed to provide updated Air Quality Index (AQI) data for Delhi on Monday, raising concerns among residents about timely pollution monitoring.
The Sameer App, which aggregates AQI information from all monitoring stations across the city, stopped updating data after Monday afternoon. The usual 24-hour average AQI, released daily at 4 pm, had not been updated even by 6.30 pm. Officials did not immediately clarify the reason for the disruption.
According to the last available bulletin, Delhi’s air quality remained in the “very poor” category, with a reading of 345 since morning and no further updates throughout the day. This is not the first disruption this season; similar instances were reported during and after Diwali when AQI data remained unavailable for several hours.
On Sunday, Delhi’s AQI had reached 391 in the morning – the highest recorded so far this season – while the 24-hour average AQI settled at 370, still in the “very poor” range, according to CPCB data.
The Decision Support System (DSS) for air quality forecasting reported that stubble burning contributed 0 per cent to Delhi’s pollution on Monday, while the transport sector accounted for around 21.4 per cent. Satellite-based stubble-burning data has not been updated since November 8; the last figures recorded 42 incidents in Punjab, 158 in Uttar Pradesh, and 42 in Haryana on Saturday.
Visibility in Delhi remained poor throughout the day. Morning visibility dropped to 1,000 metres at both Palam and Safdarjung stations, improving slightly by evening to 2,100 metres at Palam and 1,500 metres at Safdarjung, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
With PTI inputs