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Delhi's air quality data manipulation allegations surface after Diwali. Aam Aadmi Party claims government agencies conspired to alter pollution readings. Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa asserts Diwali's impact is minimal. He accuses AAP of communalizing the issue and scapegoating Hindus. Sirsa presents comparative data to support his claims, highlighting systemic issues over festival celebrations. Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) President Saurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesday al ...Read More >
12 Lucknow: The bursting of firecrackers during Diwali celebrations engulfed Lucknow in toxic air. During the live monitoring of air pollution levels, the PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations in the city's air reached the hazardous level of 500 micrograms per cubic meter.The city's air quality deteriorated from 'moderate' to 'severe' during Diwali night and post-Diwali celebrations on Tuesday. According to the live air quality monitoring stations' data available on the Central Pollution Control Board ...Read More >
Panchkula: Two days after Diwali, the city continues to grapple with poor air quality. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average AQI recorded at 4 pm on Wednesday stood at 268, firmly placing Panchkula in the "poor" category -- a level known to cause breathing discomfort on prolonged exposure.By 5 pm, the AQI had climbed slightly to 271, still within the poor range (AQI 201-300). The city's only monitoring station, located in Sector 6, has consistently reflecte ...Read More >
Most of the patients were aged between 10 and 40 years of age. New Delhi: Hospitals across the national capital reported a surge in burn injuries after Diwali celebrations on Tuesday, with dozens of patients admitted due to firecracker-related accidents. According to data from the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Burns Surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a total of 60 burn cases were recorded between October 19 and October 21, with 33 incidents reported o ...Read More >
Nagpur: Two children, aged 4 and 8, suffered severe facial burns while bursting firecrackers and were admitted to the plastic surgery department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Nagpur late Tuesday evening. At least 28 others sustained burn injuries to fingers, hands, eyes, forearms, and legs between 8pm Tuesday and past midnight.AIIMS officials said both children with facial burns are now stable, and collagen sheets have been applied to their wounds for early healing in the pl ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Saurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesday alleged that four government agencies "worked together" to manipulate the national capital's air quality data on the night of Diwali, terming it a "criminal act" following reports that an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 1763 was recorded at the Nehru Nagar monitoring station before it was shut down.Speaking to ANI, Bhardwaj said, "They are corrupt and criminals, what they have done is a criminal act... Four differe ...Read More >
Delhi's air quality nosedived on Monday (October 20, 2025), the Deepavali afternoon, as pollution levels at 31 out of 38 monitoring stations redlined at 'very poor', and 'severe' at three stations. According to the SAMEER app by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi recorded an overall AQI of 334 at noon, compared to 339 at 9 a.m. Delhi CM Rekha Gupta appeals for green crackers as AQI crosses 300 Thirty-one monitoring stations reported air quality in the 'very poor' category with ...Read More >
RAIPUR: Two men barged into a house in Chhattisgarh's Durg district following a bitter argument with a woman over bursting firecrackers and killed her 60-year-old father-in-law on Monday evening, police said on Tuesday. Police said the incident took place in Bhilai town in an area under the jurisdiction of Chhavni police station. The two men, identified by the police as Sanjay and Shubham, were arrested on Tuesday following a formal complaint lodged by the woman. Police said the two were bur ...Read More >
Mumbai, October 22: Diwali celebrations in Chhattisgarh turned tragic after a 60-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death by two men following a heated argument over them bursting firecrackers. Cops said that the dispute took place over the two accused bursting firecrackers outside the deceased's house in Chhattisgarh's Durg district. The alleged stabbing incident occurred on Monday night, October 20, under the Chhavni police station limits in Bhilai town. Soon after the incident came to lig ...Read More >
New Delhi: Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) President Saurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesday alleged that four government agencies "worked together" to manipulate the national capital's air quality data on the night of Diwali, terming it a "criminal act" following reports that an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 1763 was recorded at the Nehru Nagar monitoring station before it was shut down. Speaking to ANI, Bhardwaj said, "They are corrupt and criminals, what they have done is a criminal act... Four diffe ...Read More >
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced that Diwali celebrations in the capital will be distinct this year under a "sanatani" government. Speaking at a Diwali Milan program, she highlighted initiatives like Yamuna cleaning and the lifting of the green cracker ban, emphasizing the enhanced "divinity and grandness" of the festival. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Saturday said that Diwali in the national capital will be different, as it will be celebrated this year under a "sanatani" government. ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday said that the cloud seeding operations are ready to take off, with Cessna aircraft and all necessary equipment in place. The pilots are licensed, and authorities are now awaiting the green signal from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to commence operations as soon as clouds form. In an interview with ANI, Sirsa highlighted that the project, which aims to simulate artificial rainfall and r ...Read More >
CHENNAI: The Avadi Police on Monday arrested three people in connection with the explosion that killed four men at Thandurai in Pattabiram on Sunday afternoon. The blast, allegedly triggered by firecrackers manufactured and stored illegally, caused a portion of the house to collapse, trapping the victims inside. Police identified the accused as A Vijayan (26), S Arumugam (50) and S Thomodharan (41). They were booked under provisions of the Explosives Act and remanded in judicial custody on Mond ...Read More >
Kolkata, Oct 22 (PTI) The air quality in Kolkata and in the twin city of Howrah was "poor" on Wednesday morning, an official said. The air quality index (AQI) was 200 (PM 2.5) at 9 am at the air monitoring station at Jadavpur and 141 (PM 2.5) at Ballygunge, an official of West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) said. At Rabindra Bharati University in the Sinthi area the AQI was 142, while it was 165 at New Town, the satellite township near Kolkata. While the AQI was 150 at Fort William at ...Read More >
New Delhi: Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of scapegoating Diwali for the capital's rising pollution levels, alleging that the opposition's narrative is a ploy to appease a "particular vote bank" by pushing for a ban on the festival's traditions, including diyas and crackers. "Aam Aadmi Party is fully focused on proving that the pollution here in Delhi is due to Diwali. This is because they have a particular vote bank, whom they wa ...Read More >
NEW DELHI - Air pollution in India's capital has surged to hazardous levels, making New Delhi the most polluted major city in the world, according to Swiss-based air quality monitor IQAir. The spike follows Diwali festivities, during which fireworks and firecrackers contributed heavily to the smog. Iconic sites such as the India Gate War Memorial and Akshardham Temple were shrouded in thick haze, visible in drone imagery showing a murky skyline. While India's Supreme Court recently allowed the ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is attempting to hold "Diwali, Hindus, and Sanatanis" responsible for Delhi's air pollution, calling it a "sin" to link the festival with the capital's worsening air quality. In an interview with ANI, Sirsa lashed out at AAP for what he described as a politically motivated attempt to ban Hindu religious practices, saying, "It's not the crackers..The Aam Aadmi ...Read More >
Kolkata: The genesis of Kolkata's noisiest Diwali in recent memory can be traced back to May-June period. Monitoring and source control of noisy crackers, typically initiated in the summer months, were largely absent this year and commenced in earnest only as Diwali approached, claimed a cross-section of stakeholders, including police officers, state pollution control board officials, and cracker industry insiders that TOI spoke to following Monday night's noise mayhem.Of the 7,000 kg of firecra ...Read More >
NEW DELHI -- Thick smog blanketed India's capital Tuesday, a day after millions celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali with fireworks that sent air pollution soaring to hazardous levels. Revelers in New Delhi burst firecrackers late into Monday night, filling the air with smoke and fine particles that mixed with seasonal pollution and stagnant weather conditions. By Tuesday morning, the city's Air Quality Index had climbed above 350 in several neighborhoods, a level considered "severe" and dan ...Read More >
Firecracker sales in Delhi witnessed a sharp rise this Diwali, with traders reporting brisk business and heavy footfall, even as resident welfare associations (RWAs) raised concerns over violations of bursting-time limits and worsening air quality. According to Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) chairman Brijesh Goyal, demand for firecrackers surged significantly this festive season. "Even a day before Diwali, most traders had run out of stock. Many people had to travel to Gurugram, Noida, Far ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 21: The air quality in Delhi plummeted on Tuesday post Diwali as residents flouted the Supreme Court-mandated time slots for bursting of firecrackers, even as the city government blamed the AAP dispensation in Punjab for the toxic haze over the national capital alleging forced stubble burning last night. The city recorded its worst air quality on Tuesday since 2021, with PM2.5 levels reaching 488 micrograms per cubic metre in the 24 hours after Diwali, more than three times the p ...Read More >
New Delhi: Firecracker emissions may have contributed between 30% and 40% to the city's pollution on Diwali, with calm conditions primarily worsening the impact and delaying recovery, say experts. According to Gufran Beig, founder of System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and chair professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), a preliminary visual analysis of data indicates that pollution levels rose steeply between 9 pm on Monday and 5 am on Tuesday, wh ...Read More >
New Delhi: In just an hour of firecracker frenzy -- between 9pm and 10pm on Diwali -- the PM2.5 concentration at Nehru Nagar in Lajpat Nagar surged from 679 micrograms per cubic metre to a staggering 1,763µg/m³. This made the southeast Delhi location the most polluted area in the city on Monday night.The peak level was over 29 times the daily national ambient air quality standard of 60 µg/m³ and 118 times World Health Organisation's daily safe guideline. A similar pattern of crackers burst in cl ...Read More >
NOIDA: A day after Diwali, the air in Gautam Budh Nagar continued to remain toxic, showing no significant improvement despite a visible decline in festive fireworks. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI on Tuesday stood at 320 in Noida and 282 in Greater Noida. Data from the past two days revealed little change - Noida's AQI was 325 on Monday and 320 on Sunday, while Greater Noida recorded 282 and 287, respectively. The district's air had already turned foul even bef ...Read More >
Noida: With the ban on firecrackers lifted for the first time in five years, Delhi-NCR experienced a sharp surge in pollution levels this Diwali, with both Noida and Ghaziabad recording 'very poor' air quality. This was also the worst Diwali AQI to be recorded in the two cities in the last three years, even though pollution levels didn't worsen after the festival.Experts said moderate winds of around 10 km per hour and warmer afternoons -- maximum temperature was recorded around 33 degrees Celsi ...Read More >
Noida: The city's 7x sectors woke up to a toxic haze after Diwali, with air quality plunging to alarming levels as residents flouted firecracker restrictions late into the night. Data from the Sector 116 monitoring station, which covers the 7x sectors, revealed that AQI was lodged in the "very poor" category through the day -- making the area the city's most polluted.Between 9am on Monday and 9am on Tuesday, AQI readings from Sector 116 hovered between 356 and 373, never leaving the 'very poor' ...Read More >
The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) at 4 pm on Tuesday was 351 (very poor), up from 345 on Monday. As air pollution levels rose the day after Diwali, the Delhi government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had "forced" farmers in Punjab to burn stubble to foul the capital's air. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) at 4 pm on Tuesday was 351 (very poor), up from 345 on Monday. At a press conference, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sin ...Read More >
Chandigarh: This year, Diwali brought a mixed bag for the city's air quality, with pollution levels spiking on the festival night but still showing an overall improvement as compared to previous years.According to data released by Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC), air quality across the city remained in the "satisfactory" to "moderate" range (AQI below 120) on regular days. However, Diwali night saw a sharp rise in pollution levels due to the bursting of firecrackers, pushing Air Qu ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], October 22 (ANI): Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa has accused former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of appeasement politics, alleging that he "deliberately banned firecrackers in Delhi to garner the votes of a particular community, to appease them". Addressing a press conference, Sirsa hit out at AAP over its allegations that BJP government was under pressure from cracker manufacturers. "They (AAP) are deliberately bringing Diwali, Sanatana Dharma, and ...Read More >
Kolkata: While the city was busy celebrating the Diwali-Kali Puja festival on Monday night, doctors across many hospitals in the city were busy tending to patients with burn injuries caused mostly by firecrackers. From adults to children, the emergency wings of these hospitals saw a trickle of injured festive revellers. While most were lucky to escape with minor burns, a few patients were admitted as they needed further treatment.Between Sunday and Monday night, Belle Vue Clinic already treated ...Read More >
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