India, Nov. 12 -- After the air quality index (AQI) in the national capital region (NCR) slipped into the "severe" category on Tuesday - having hovered close to this level for days - stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP 3) was finally enforced. On Wednesday, too, the national capital's AQI remained in the severe category. Whether GRAP 3 will lift some of the grey haze blanketing the region remains to be seen. The Supreme Court directed Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday to submit details of action taken against farm fires next week, and it is likely that farmers, especially in the former, will see this as a deadline and scramble to set fire to the remaining crop stubble in their fields.

The haze over the accuracy and integrity o...