NEWS

With the air quality index in Delhi hitting this season’s highest figure of 471 on Friday, authorities have advised that government and private offices and other establishments reduce vehicle usage by at least 30% and outdoor activities be limited.

The AQI has reached the upper end of the ‘severe’ category, going by the Central Pollution Control Board’s 4 pm bulletin. This is worse than what was seen on November 5, the day after Diwali, when an AQI of 462 was recorded.

As per an order issued by Prashant Gargava, chairperson of the sub-committee on the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), people are advised to limit outdoor activities and minimise their exposure while government and private offices and other establishments have been advised to “reduce vehicle usage by at least 30%”.`

On a day when the Chinese Communist Party’s sixth plenum came out with a major historical assessment and paved the way for Xi Jinping to become President for life, India stated it would not accept Chinese “illegal” occupation nor its “unjustified” claims on the border.

Responding to questions about reports of construction of Chinese “dual-use” villages in the border areas, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, MEA spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi told journalists on Thursday that India has “conveyed its strong protest to such activities through diplomatic means and will continue to do so in the future.”

China, he said, has “undertaken construction activities in the past several years along the border areas, including in the areas that it has illegally occupied over the decades. India has neither accepted such illegal occupation of our territory nor has it accepted the unjustified Chinese claims.”

Soaring aviation turbine fuel prices have led to a 400% increase in Indian airlines’ operating cost in recent months. And had the government not recently raised domestic fare bands by 12.5% some months back, there “won’t have been any airline left for us to board”, Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia said at the Times Now Summit 2021 on Thursday.

“We are seeing tremendous amount of green shoots. The last weekend saw a high of 3.8 lakh passengers daily, with the pre-Covid high being 4.2 lakh. So we are only 10% below the pre-Covid high. Almost 90% of (domestic) traffic has recovered. But it is important to be cautious,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed scepticism on the view of a committee it had itself set up when the panel submitted that extending the definition of ‘forest’ to ‘planted trees on non-notified land’ will only discourage planting of trees along roadsides on common lands.

The reply by the committee was filed on an application by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) seeking the court’s permission for felling of trees for construction of Phase IV of the Metro Rail project, which would be 20 km long, from the Aerocity to Tughlakabad. Around 10,000 trees will have to be axed for the project.