Delhi’s air quality deteriorated back to the ‘poor’ category on Tuesday, even as cold northwesterly winds persisted in the region, leading to a further drop in mercury.

Delhi’s average air quality index (AQI) stood at 229 (poor) at 9am, which was a rise from a reading of 186 (moderate) at 4pm on Monday.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s minimum temperature was recorded at 8°C, two degrees below normal. It was 8.2°C a day earlier. Forecasts show the minimum is expected to dip by another 1-2°C in the next 24 hours, likely touching 6°C by Thursday.

Meteorological experts said a drop in both maximum and minimum temperature is likely in over the next three days as the impact of fresh snowfall in the mountains is felt in the plains too.

Also Read:Winds improve AQI from ‘very poor’ to ‘moderate’, Delhi logs lowest maximum of season

Delhi recorded its lowest maximum of the season so far on Monday, when it was clocked at 21.6°C — three degrees below normal. Prior to this, the lowest maximum was 23.5°C on November 17.

Despite sunshine, northwesterly should keep maximum below normal, forecasts show.

Delhi’s average AQI at 9am was calculated on the basis of 38 ambient air quality monitoring stations. While none were in the ‘very poor’ range, 28 were in ‘poor’ and the rest ‘moderate’. The highest average AQI was 297 at Jahangirpuri.

Monday was the fourth ‘moderate’ air day so far in December, which is the highest number of such days recorded in the month of December since the AQI was launched in 2015.

Previously, three moderate days each were recorded in December 2022, 2019, and 2015. The AQI has never gone below the moderate category in December, with the lowest reading being 140 on December 26, 2015. Delhi recorded moderate AQI on December 4 (178), December 5 (165) and December 6 (197).

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will ask an agency to enhance Delhi’s green cover amid concerns over the city’s bad air.

It also added that it could eventually consider passing an order to ensure all cars used by the government and state-owned enterprises and organisations be electric.

Dealing with matters arising from a public interest litigation filed four decades ago by lawyer and activist MC Mehta on the poor air quality in Delhi, the bench pulled up the Delhi government for not doing enough to enhance the Capital’s green cover.The bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said that in June this year it when the court directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to take constructive steps in this direction, but that except for holding meetings nothing has been done since.

“We propose to appoint an agency for enhancing green cover,” said the bench, and asked senior advocate Guru Krishnakumar who is assisting the court as amicus curiae to suggest an agency that could do this when the matter is next heard on December 18. One of the suggestions made by the amicus was of the Forest Survey of India (FSI). The Delhi government, represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati pointed out that a working plan for a sustainable management of forest and biodiversity conservation for Delhi is being prepared by the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute.

A K Singh, principal secretary, environment and forest, Delhi joined the hearing virtually and informed the court that the government has held four meetings thus far. The court reminded the officer that in October when the Delhi government filed an affidavit in this regard, it again mentioned meetings, and rued that there have been no constructive steps. Singh’s response was to point out that the government has held two more meetings since October and that “we can have another meeting.”

Upset at the response, the bench said: “If calling meetings is the only exercise you have carried out then we will appoint an independent agency and pass directions. Except for holding meetings nothing has been done. No satisfactory progress has been made in terms of what we said in our June 26 order.”

This same bench recently passed directions against stubble burning and monitored the enforcement of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi-NCR when the air quality in the Capital breached 450 making Delhi’s air toxic.

The court’s order of June 26 directed the Delhi forest department and all agencies concerned with ensuring green cover in Delhi to have a meeting with three court-appointed experts – former IFS officer Sunil Limaye, principal chief conservator of forests Ishwer Singh and environmentalist Pradeep Kishen to consider their recommendations for developing a scientific and targeted approach for improving sustainable tree cover in the Capital.

The top court recently asked for a tree census in the Capital while monitoring the role of the Tree Authority under the Delhi Tree Preservation Act (DTPA) in a petition filed by a Delhi resident Bhavreen Kandhari that claimed that Delhin was losing five trees every hour, and that official data shoed 60,000 trees were felled in the previous six years. That matter is also expected to be taken up on the next date of hearing.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner Ashwani Kumar is likely to be unable to present the municipal budget proposals for the next financial year before the deadline of December 10, senior officials said on Monday, pointing out that the formation of the standing committee — which controls the purse strings of the civic body — is still in limbo, more than two years after the corporation elections were held.

A senior MCD official said that no meeting of the house of councillors has been scheduled for Tuesday. “Any meeting would require a notice of at least 72 hours. No such notices have been issued. The budget needs to be presented before the standing committee which is not in place,” the official added.

The proposals are said to be worth around ₹17,000 crore, officials said.

According to provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, the commissioner is expected to present budget estimates before the standing committee no later than December 10. These estimates are later amended by the panel, and forwarded to the house of councillors to be finalised.

If Kumar is unable to present the budget, MCD works will be embroiled in yet another logjam, officials said. Last year, MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti had directly submitted the budget before a special house meeting on December 9 in a bid to bypass the budget presentation requirement. The budget process to finalise various municipal tax rates , the Act says, must culminate before February 15 in the house of councillors.

BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the budget was presented before the house meeting as an exceptional case under extraordinary circumstances as the standing committee. “MCD cannot repeat the same logic every year. The AAP is now allowing the formation of the standing committee. Last year, the members had not been elected but all 18 members are now in place and budget should be presented before the standing committee,” he said. The BJP had written a letter to the MCD commissioner on November 24 demanding that the budget be presented before the standing committee and not directly before the house.

The AAP said in a statement on Monday: “For the first time, the MCD commissioner has refrained from presenting the budget in the house — a stark departure from tradition. So far, in the absence of the standing committee, the budget has always been presented in the house. It raises serious questions whether the BJP is pressuring him to withhold the budget?”

The corporation is likely to see deviation from previous practice as all 18 members of the standing committee have been elected, but the process to electing the chairperson remains pending — the then mayor Shelly Oberoi on September 29 challenged the poll in the Supreme Court, a senior official said. The Supreme Court on October 4 verbally expressed reservations about the manner in which the Delhi lieutenant governor issued directions for holding the elections for the sixth member of the standing committee.

“The proposal to hold the presentation of budget will be sent to the municipal secretariat, which is expected to forward it, but since the standing committee is still not in place, it is unlikely to see further progress and may be returned back. It is a legal grey area. The final outcome may depend on the outcome of the standing committee case pending before the court,” a senior MCD official said, on condition of anonymity.

A second official associated with the budget-making process said that the final decision about how to go forward with the budget may end up in the apex court. “The Supreme Court may grant the power of standing committee to the commissioner for completion of this statutory requirement, or decide the outcome of the standing committee formation,” the second official said.

To be sure, when a similar situation arose last year, the then MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti had managed to present the budget directly in the house of councillors on December 9.

In addition, last year, the discretionary fund for mayors was raised from ₹10 to ₹500 crore by transferring the maintenance funds from various other sectors.

“Since various heads of budget allocation in matters related to development works of approved colonies, parks, unauthorised regularised colonies, rural and urban villages were reduced to nil, works have been affected this year,” the first official quoted above said.