The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Wednesday revoked all restrictions under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) even as Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 327—still deep in the ‘very poor’ category—and the city endured its 21st consecutive day of hazardous air quality, prompting widespread public anger as construction sites reopened and older diesel vehicles returned to the roads.
The decision to roll back the third tier of GRAP restrictions came despite meteorological forecasts showing that air quality would continue to remain in the ‘very poor’ category for the coming days, and barely a week after the Supreme Court had urged the CAQM to adopt a more “proactive” approach and consider making pollution-control measures even stricter.
At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, when the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released its daily national bulletin, Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI was recorded at 327. Though slightly better than Tuesday’s 353 and Monday’s 382, the figure marked the 21st consecutive day with an AQI above 300, tying the fifth-longest such streak since systematic monitoring began in April 2015.
The CPCB classifies air quality in the 301–400 range as ‘very poor’, a category that can cause respiratory discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure. The health impact of these levels was underscored in the Supreme Court on the same day, where the Chief Justice and several senior advocates openly shared their personal experiences of breathing difficulties.
The CAQM’s order revoking Stage 3 provided little substantive explanation for the abrupt reversal. It appeared to hinge on the marginal improvement in AQI over the past three days and on the commission’s own revised, more stringent GRAP framework announced on November 21, even though forecasts clearly indicated persistently ‘very poor’ air in the days ahead.
“The AQI of Delhi has been improving since the last three days and has been recorded at 327 today. Further, the forecast by the IMD and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology predicts AQI to remain in the ‘very poor’ category in the coming days,” the CAQM sub-committee stated while announcing the immediate revocation of Stage 3 measures that had been in force since November 11.
Mukesh Khare, professor emeritus and air pollution expert at IIT Delhi, described the decision as premature and hasty. “We know temperatures are dipping and the AQI keeps fluctuating at this time of the year. November, December and January are crucial months and we should not jump the gun during such months, unless there is rain and considerable improvement,” he said.
“There is not much difference between an AQI of 320 or an AQI of 350. We cannot normalise slightly lower values and this decision feels illogical.”
The timing of the rollback highlighted a stark gap between scientific understanding, the commission’s decision-making process, and the demands of affected citizens. Just hours before the CAQM announcement, the East Delhi Federation of Residents’ Welfare Associations Joint Front had declared the existing GRAP stages “ineffective” and called for far tougher action.
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“As things stand, we need stages 5 and 6 of Grap to be formulated, which have stringent measures. The AQI keeps fluctuating and therefore there is a need for an action plan for this,” said BS Vohra, president of the federation. The residents’ group suggested banning all non-essential public movement, permitting markets to operate only on alternate days, and temporarily making public transport free.
With the revocation of Stage 3, private construction and demolition activities, along with mining and related operations, have been permitted to resume across the entire National Capital Region. Restrictions on BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel light motor vehicles have been lifted with immediate effect. Schools are no longer required to shift to hybrid learning modes, and the directive for government and private offices to operate at 50% staff capacity with work-from-home for the rest has been withdrawn.
That office-capacity restriction had been in place for only three days—introduced by the Delhi government on Monday—following the CAQM’s November 21 GRAP revision, which lowered the AQI thresholds for several emergency measures by shifting some Stage 4 actions to Stage 3, some Stage 3 actions to Stage 2, and some Stage 2 actions to Stage 1.
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