Better air quality in Delhi this Diwali, says Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the air quality in Delhi this Diwali was better compared to last year.

"The number of 'Good', 'Satisfactory' and 'Moderate' days has increased and 'Poor' and 'Very Poor' category has reduced significantly compared to 2016," a release quoted him as saying while speaking to a media outlet.

"The air quality has been significantly better this year than last year during Diwali. AQI (Air Quality Index) on Diwali and post-Diwali day was 426 and 425, respectively, last year and it has been 326 and 367 this year," the release quoted Harsh vardhan as saying.

"Also, there has neither been smog, as was the case last year post-Diwali, nor has there been an Emergency-plus situation."

He said he had held meetings with the states in National Capital Region (NCR) on stubble burning and efforts were being made to provide farmers with an alternative to burning to facilitate farmers to create wealth from waste.

The minister appealed to the citizens, both individually and collectively, to undertake one good, green deed every day "to build a social movement to combat pollution".

Harsh Vardhan also reiterated that scientists were asked to develop zero-pollution crackers to tackle pollution.