The residents of Delhi on Tuesday once again woke to bone-chilling cold and fog that also hit flight and rail operations, leaving thousands of passengers waiting for hours at the airport and railway stations. The national capital has recorded a minimum temperature of 6.9 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average. The maximum temperature was settled at 19.5 degree Celsius, a notch below the normal. People of Delhi and NCR got some relief in the daytime due to sunlight while morning and nights are extremely cold here. Delhi has experienced five cold day conditions and five cold wave conditions in January so far, the highest in the last 13 years, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the maximum temperature was recorded in Palam at 17 degree Celsius, Lodhi Road at 18.2 degree Celsius, Ridge at 17.6 degree Celsius, Ayanagar 18.2 degree Celsius, Narela at 16.3 degree Celsius, Pitampura at 18.6 degree Celsius and SPS Mayur Vihar at 16.1 degree Celsius. Similar cold day conditions will prevail on Wednesday. There is an orange alert for Wednesday.
The national capital is experiencing cold day conditions and dense fog in the morning and during the nighttime, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).The national capital has not received any rainfall in January so far – an unusual occurrence when compared to previous years, according to the India Meteorological Department’s data.
At least 180 people, mostly homeless persons, have died in Delhi this month due to cold conditions, non-government organisation Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) has claimed and written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting him to make proper arrangements for such people during winters. While officials from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) denied that deaths have occurred due to cold, officers of the Delhi Police acknowledged that the number of deaths among homeless people suffering from medical issues goes up during winters. According to NGO, 359 homeless people were died in the month of January in 2023.
“Even though the allegations were made few months back by BJP, it came to light that such data is being extracted from Delhi Police’s zipnet website in which figures of unidentified dead bodies and death in road accidents are included. Unfortunately, claims were made that those people died due to cold. No post-mortem report has been attached or referred. These are just allegations based on website where figures of each month including summers are similar. Until the cause of death is conclusively proven, it is highly inappropriate to assert that they succumbed to homelessness. Despite that, Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has issued written instructions to his department to promptly arrange for night shelters wherever needed. Unfortunately, even after such instructions ‘Dandi Park Shelter’ were demolished in directions of earlier CEO of DUSIB. We would request LG saab to taken action against the then CEO Garima Gupta,” the AAP said in a statement
The foggy conditions also reduced the visibility in the region, which resulted in the delay and cancellation of flight operations from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). Around 70 flights faced delayed at IGI airport. Several passengers were left stranded at NCT’s railway stations as 28 Delhi-bound trains, including Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, were running late due to dense fog and coldwave conditions.
According to IMD, the national capital has not received any rainfall in January so far – an unusual occurrence when compared to previous years. In the last seven years, Delhi saw one to six days of rain in January where normal rainfall during the month is 8.1 mm at Safdarjung Observatory, the India Meteorological Department data showed.
