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Early on Thursday, the air quality early warning system (EWS) for Delhi anticipated that pollution levels would persist in the “very poor” category, with an AQI (Air Quality Index) figure below 400, until the following week. However, by Thursday evening, Delhi’s air quality unexpectedly deteriorated significantly, reaching an AQI of 422 at 10pm, creating a challenge for the EWS’s reliability. The EWS, developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) to forecast when Delhi’s air quality might deteriorate, serves as the foundation for activating pollution-control measures.
On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi’s office as part of an investigation into alleged corruption related to a drinking water project in a series of raids happening in the run-up to the poll-bound state. According to sources, the ED confiscated documents and files from Joshi’s office at the state secretariat in Jaipur. Additionally, the residence of Subodh Agarwal, an official from the public health engineering department, was also searched in Jaipur. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has accused central agencies of acting on behalf of the BJP-led Union government, particularly in states going to polls.
