AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj alleges "huge fraud" in monitoring AQI, says GRAP measures not being implemented

New Delhi [India], November 22 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj on Saturday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in the national capital, alleging that the party is doing a "huge fraud" in recording the actual air quality of the region.
He also alleged that the plans laid out under the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) are not being properly implemented, with pollution allowed to run rampant through private construction.
"Supreme Court established an independent commission - CAQM (Commission for Air Quality Management), for the implementation of a graded response with the increasing pollution. The measures under GRAP used to be implemented and pollution reduced, but this year, the government committed a huge fraud in the indexing of air pollution. AQI shows 350 where it is actually 500," Bharadwaj told ANI here.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) NCR and Adjoining Areas has revised the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for the entire NCR and directed to impose the measures for 'Severe' AQI category under GRAP Stage IV to be taken under GRAP Stage III, a press release said.
According to a press release by CAQM, as measures under GRAP IV are now under GRAP III, the NCR State Governments/GNCTD will decide whether public, municipal, and private offices can operate at 50 per cent strength, with the rest working from home.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also launched a new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to distribute over 10,000 electric heaters to various Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) for giving to various watchmen for combating wood and coal burning during the winter months.
"Delhi is continuing to fight against pollution, and for that, the Delhi government has launched this positive initiative. We burn wood, burn coal for heat, which increases pollution, to reduce such a thing we have started the initiative that we will give 10000 heaters through CSR," Rekha Gupta told reporters here.
The GRAP III measures were implemented on November 11 across the NCR region. The Stage 3 measures include stricter restrictions on construction, vehicular movement, and industrial operations.
According to a press release by CAQM, as measures under GRAP IV are now under GRAP III, the NCR State Governments/GNCTD will decide whether public, municipal, and private offices can operate at 50 per cent strength, with the rest working from home.
Meanwhile, Delhi's air quality persisted in the 'very poor' category, recording an average AQI of 359, according to data from the Air Quality Early Warning System. Despite recording a slight improvement from the average of 364 AQI recorded on Friday, a layer of toxic smog continued to envelope parts of the city early in the morning. (ANI)