Delhi's new Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Saturday called for “collective effort” in improving the capital's air quality, after some children he met at a local cafe shared with him their concerns about pollution.
Taranjit Singh Sandhu with some locals at a Delhi cafe. (Photo: X/@SandhuTaranjitS)
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“Met a wonderful family at our local colony café today. The children raised an important concern about Delhi’s AQI & the air we breathe. Their awareness was truly heartening,” he posted on X. He did not detail what the children said or suggested.
“Improving air quality requires a collective effort. I would welcome practical ideas & suggestions,” Sandhu added.
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Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 145, in the 'moderate' category, on Saturday morning, an improvement from 189 on Friday evening, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.
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Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 145, in the 'moderate' category, on Saturday morning, an improvement from 189 on Friday evening, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.
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And the AQI is likely to remain in the 'moderate' category for the next few days, according to the Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS).
According to the CPCB, an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 to 100 'satisfactory', 101 to 200 'moderate', 201 to 300 'poor', 301 to 400 'very poor', and 401 to 500 'severe'.
Delhi suffers from severely bad air quality several months a year, particularly in the winter months. This has been an issue of contention in its politics too, with the Centre and Delhi's ruling BJP blaming the previous AAP regime of the National Capital Territory (NCT) for it. CM Rekha Gupta has promised a gradual improvement.
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Sandhu, 63, a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer from the 1988 batch, was sworn in as Delhi's 23rd Lieutenant Governor on March 11. He succeeds VK Saxena, who's been moved to Ladakh.
Sandhu's service of over three decades included roles as Ambassador to the US, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, and in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations at New York.
He had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March 2024 and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar but lost to Congress incumbent Gurjeet Singh Aujla.
Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for.
Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.
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Home/India News/Delhi's new L-G runs into a family at a cafe, kids ask about AQI: What he said
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