14 complaints, 74 alerts: Inside Delhi’s pollution control war room after Diwali

At 5 pm on Monday, a complaint about plastic components from electronic gadgets being burnt was received in Delhi's pollution control war room. A 25-year-old data engineer handling the call centre desk noted the complaint, identifying the location as Mustafabad in Northeast Delhi. He then checked the locations of nearby enforcement teams deployed in Vayu Rakshak vehicles.

Three teams were close by, with the nearest just 500 meters away. The engineer informed the nearest team member about the complaint, explaining that they would respond once an officer visited the site. The officer would also need to upload photographs of the site after inspection.

In South Delhi's Panchsheel Park, a woman data engineer contacted a house construction site operator at 1.58 pm regarding high PM 10 concentrations, which had risen from 300 to 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre. She advised the operator to use an anti-smog gun or water sprinklers and to cover any exposed dust-generating materials. Within half an hour, the PM 10 level dropped below 300, and the engineer marked the situation as "resolved" on the Dust Portal.

During the night shift, another woman data engineer received a complaint about dust and air pollution caused by firecrackers near Shyam Nath Marg in North Delhi. The complaint was made at around 11.23 pm, but the enforcement team's actions had not yet been updated in the system as of the 1.58 pm update. Earlier in the afternoon, a complaint was lodged from Gokalpuri about illegal sand transportation and sale. The nearest enforcement team was informed, but they found no violation.

The Integrated Command and Control Centre, established by the Delhi government on October 1, had 18 staff members on duty during Diwali night, including 8 data engineers, 8 environmental engineers, and 2 technical staff members. The DPCC chairman visited the center that night to review its functioning. By Monday noon, the Air Quality Index (AQI) remained around 370, the highest post-Diwali reading in the past five years, surpassing the 315 recorded in 2022.

The ICCC receives alerts only when the AQI sharply rises at a particular monitoring station, as the system does not generate alerts when pollution levels are similar across stations.