Delhi News Live Updates: Delhi govt moves SC challenging Centre’s ordinance, seeks interim stay

In April 2021, the Delhi Police thought it had cracked an open-and-shut case of an elderly couple being mowed down by a car in Dwarka with the arrest of the driver, 28-year-old Deepakshi Choudhary. However, careful analysis of footage from a lone CCTV camera installed at a mosque near the spot showed another woman, dressed in a white top and pink track pants, and with a different body structure, behind the wheel — which turned out to be Deepakshi’s sister Nupur (26).

On April 4, 2021, Shanti Swaroop Arora (72) and his wife Anjula Arora (62) were mowed down by a grey Baleno while they were on an evening walk at Masjid Wali Road in Dwarka’s Sector 11. They were residents of Appu Enclave in the area.

CCTV footage of the incident, around 6 minutes long, showed the vehicle slowly approaching the couple at a corner of the road and mowing both of them down.

From January to June this year, Delhi has seen the cleanest air for the period in the past eight years – except for 2020, the year the first Covid-induced lockdown was imposed, according to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).

The improvement has been in terms of both average air quality index (AQI) as well as the average PM10 and PM2.5 levels from January to June. The average AQI from January to June this year was 199.6, the lowest 2016 onwards, except for the average AQI for this period in 2020, which was 171.8. Similarly, the average PM10 level from January to June this year was 202 µg/m3, which is the lowest for the period 2016 onwards, save for 2020, when it was at a lower figure of 158 µg/m3. The PM2.5 level so far this year has been 91 µg/m3, also the lowest for this period from 2016, except for the 80 µg/m3 recorded in 2020.

A communication from the CAQM attributed the improved air quality to meteorological conditions and “concerted efforts.” The CAQM said in its communication: “Favourable meteorological/ weather conditions coupled with consistent, comprehensive and concerted efforts by the CAQM and various stakeholders to control air pollution in the National Capital Region helped in achieving better overall air quality in Delhi during the first half of the current year.”