THE TIMES OF INDIA,, FEBRUARY 1, 20177

TIMES CITY

New Delhi: For the secondconsecutive year, Delhi missedits characteristic Januarychill. While the month had mo-re cold days than December,temperatures stayed abovenormal on a majority of days— one of the reasons forwhich, ironically, could be therelatively clean winter air thisseason.

The month ended with the

average minimum temperatu-re 1.1 degree Celsius higherthan normal and the averagemaximum 0.7 degrees above

par. As monthly averages go,these deviations are signifi-cant although lower than whatwas seen in January last year,

which was an exceptionalwarm month.

Night temperatures drop-ped below 5 degrees C on just

four days during the monthwhile maximum temperatu-res were significantly lowerthan normal on three days.Compare this to 10 ‘cold days’in January 2015 (significantlylower maximum temperatu-res) and 11 days when the mer-cury dropped below 5 degreesin January 2013.

So why did Delhi witness amild winter even though thewestern Himalayas saw goodsnowfall this January? Meteo-rologists said this could due toseveral local and largescalefactors. “This season, the colddid not get transmitted signifi-cantly from the hills to the pla-ins of north and central India.That’s because the position of‘western disturbances’ (cold,moist winds from southern

Europe) was mostly a little mo-re to the north, which affectedonly J&K and Himachal Pra-desh,” said D Sivananda Pai,head of IMD’s long term fore-casts, which had predicted amild winter in India this year.

Interestingly, the relativelylow pollution levels thismonth could also have contri-buted to the higher-than-nor-mal daytime temperatures, aMet official said.

“The month had 58 hoursof fog across 13 days. That’s notunusual. However, unlike inthe past, the fog occurredmostly at night or in the mor-nings. Afternoons were relati-vely clear. This may be a resultof lower air pollution becausepollutants increase fog,” theofficial said.

Sunny DaysBecause OfCleaner Air

Low pollution led to warmer January? BLOWING HOT & COLD

1 Jan

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

3 5 7 9 11 2317 2913 2519 3115 2721

Max Actual Max Normal Min Actual Min Normal

Avg Jan Temperatures(in deg C)

Max Min

Normal 20.5 7.62017 21.2 8.72016 22.6 92015 18.9 8.32014 20.2 8.52013 19.7 6.22012 20.3 7.52011 20 6.52010 19.2 8.3

Source: IMD & Tutiempo

25.6° | Jan 24

3.2° | Jan 14

COLDSPELL

COLD DAYS

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

A 73-year-old man, a formerpeon at ministry of externalaffairs, was arrested alongwith his wife in connectionwith a cheating case of Rs 30 lakh taken on thepretext of providing government jobs.

Singer Mika Singh getsrelief in assault case: Ina major relief to Bollywoodand Punjabi singer MikaSingh, a court on Tuesdayallowed the complainant’splea seeking to settle anassault case against thesinger.

Delhi govt to presenthealth model to WHO:The Delhi government willpresent its health model tothe WHO, World Bank andother major internationalbodies at a conference inBangkok on Wednesday.

HC declines hearing onpre-poll freebies: TheDelhi high court on Tuesdaydeclined to give an urgenthearing to a plea seeking torestrain all political partiesfrom making promises ofoffering freebies to peopleif they are voted to power.

CITY DIGEST

2 held in ̀̀ 30Lcheating case

FOG NIGHTMARE

� Continued from P1

The Yamuna expresswayaccident happened nearJewar toll plaza around

7am when a sand-laden trucksuddenly braked to turn nearthe 36th milestone. SantoshChaturvedi (50), a Mathura-based businessman, hisfriend and a driver died in thepileup. Chaturvedi was head-ed towards Ghaziabad withhis wife Rachna (45), son Yash(30), daughter Yashwanti (27)and friend Mukesh Gupta (45).They were in two cars, an Erti-ga and a Ciaz. “One of the carshit the truck on the Agra-Greater Noida carriageway.Chaturvedi, Gupta and Ibra-him, one of the drivers, werekilled. It’s not clear who wastravelling in which car,” saidJewar SHO Ajay Kumar. Therest of the family membersare being treated at Kailashhospital in Jewar.

Jewar witnessed anotheraccident an hour later whentwo trucks collided head-onon the bumpy Jhajjar roadaround 8.15am. Four peoplewere injured. In the Dankaurarea, two bikers were killed in

separate accidents. Rohtaash(31), a resident of RampurKhadar in Jewar, was hit by aCanter at the T-point near theLatifpur intersection.

Pradeep (28) died when aspeeding vehicle ploughed in-to his bike near the Chapper-garh underpass on the servicelane of the Yamuna express-way. His friend Pramod, who was with him, was seriously injured.

Munni Devi was killedwhen she was hit by a UPRoadways bus (UP87G0126)around 7.30 am.

She was crossing the roadwhen the bus hit her. “Thedriver fled from the spot. Pas-sengers were possibly presentin the bus but nobody stoppedto help her,” Tomar said.

An official said the visibil-ity at 5:30 am on Tuesday wasaround 200 metres, which isclassified as dense fog. “Thevisibility dropped and fluctu-ated between 0 and 50 metresaround 7 am. From 0-50metres, it is considered verydense,” the official said.

Jewar sees twocrashes in 1 hour

New Delhi: A 25-year-oldman was shot thrice bythree assailants in outerDelhi’s Krishan Vihar ne-ar Sultanpuri late on Mon-

day while he was enteringhis house. The victim, Sid-harth Sharma, is battlingfor life at a local hospital.He is an eyewitness in a wo-man’s murder that tookplace in Mangolpuri’s Y-Block in March 2016.

The victim’s family cla-imed that he was beingpressured to withdraw hisstatement. However, even

after receiving the threats,he went to a court in Rohinion Monday morning. Afterhe was shot, his mother fo-und him lying in a pool ofblood and called the police. Doctors said he has beenshot in his shoulder, chestand abdomen.

Sharma’s family saidthat they had informed thepolice about the repeatedthreats over the past onemonth, but no action wastaken to ensure his securi-ty. Sources said the DCPmay be quizzed as to whySharma wasn’t given pro-tection. CCTV footages arebeing scanned and localsare being questioning toidentify the shooters.

Murder witnessshot thrice, critical

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NO COP COVER

New Delhi: The National Gre-en Tribunal was on Tuesday in-formed by Delhi governmentthat it has demolished illegalreligious structures in the Cen-tral Ridge area near the Birlatemple.

A bench headed by JusticeJawad Rahim perused the sta-tus report filed by the govern-ment’s counsel which said thatthey have complied with thetribunal’s order directing de-molition of the structures onJanuary 4. The structures de-molished were “Prachin Maha-mai temple along with plat-forms, four jhuggis and twochabutara”.

The service road runningparallel to Birla Mandir wasleft as the representative ofland and development officecontended that this was part ofthe temple and should be left, itsaid. The bench was hearing anexecution petition filed by thepetitioner seeking implemen-tation of tribunal's March 3,2015 order directing demolitionof the illegal structure. Advo-cate Prafulla K Behera, appea-ring for petitioner K C Bharga-va, said despite tribunal’sMarch 2015 order authoritieshad not complied with it. PTI

‘Structuresrazed near

Birla Mandir’

New Delhi: The environmentdepartment of the Delhi go-vernment on Tuesday extendedthe closure directive of the Ba-darpur power plant, which me-ans it won’t reopen till furtherorders. Officials said this wasthe first step being taken incompliance with the graded re-sponse plan to tackle air pollu-tion. The department issuedthis order after the SC-appoin-ted Environment PollutionControl Authority (EPCA) di-rected it to keep the plant shutfor the time being.

Delhi’s air quality was “ve-ry poor” on Tuesday, accordingto the Central Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB). Officials saidthat the graded response planrequired the Badarpur plant tobe shut down when air quality

becomes “severe”. “But it wassuggested by EPCA that we clo-se it. This was also discussed ina Jan 20 meeting called by EP-CA,” said an official from the en-vironment department.

The Delhi government hadshut the plant on November 6. Itwas to remain shut till January31. “We are ready to generate po-wer but are waiting for commu-nication from the govern-ment,” said an NTPC official.He claimed no such closure ex-tension orders had been recei-ved by NTPC on Tuesday.

EPCA chairman Bhure Lalsaid, “We want the plant to re-main shut, especially since the-re is no power crisis in the city.Keeping it shut has helped con-siderably in keeping the pollu-tion level in check. There is noneed to run it now.”

(With agency inputs)

Badarpur plant tostay shut till notice

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Delhi high courton Tuesday sought responseof Delhi government on whyhas it not complied with a2011 CIC order to display in-formation of the environ-mental cost, including thenumber of trees felled, ofeach development project inthe city.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdevaissued notice to the depart-ments of forest, wildlife, en-vironment and urban deve-lopment and sought their re-plies on a plea seeking imple-mentation of the August 5,2011 order of the CIC. Thematter was listed for furtherhearing on March 3. PTI

‘Why no info on green cost?’

New Delhi: Every electro-nic device, be it an alcome-ter, does not give 100% accu-rate reading and error is bo-und to occur, a court obser-ved while setting free a manwho was jailed in a drunkendriving case.

The judge set aside a trialcourt order sentencing theman to six days imprison-ment for driving an auto in a

drunken state, saying therewas no proof that the device,used to measure alcohol con-tent in the body, was functio-ning well.

The court said the reportdid not even carry the signa-ture of the challaning offi-cer and the person to whomit pertained, and hence themagistrate should not haveconvicted the accused. PTI

Court frees man, saysalcometer not genuine