Mumbai Apr 24 PTI Police on Sunday arrested four persons for allegedly stabbing to death a 30 year-old autorickshaw driver following an argument with him over parking issue in suburban Govandi an official said The deceased identified as Salim Beig was killed on Saturday he said During the probe it came to light that Shakir Mehboob Sheikh alias Khatri 29 Saddam Firdaus Israr Khan alias Bail Siddhant Prakash Ghadge 22 and Sadik Mulla 25 were involved in the crime police said A heated argument had recently broken out between the accused and the victim over parking his vehicle Angry over it the accused hatched a plan to eliminate Beig and accordingly stabbed him to death the official said They were arrested and booked under sections 302 murder 120-B conspiracy and 34 common intention of the Indian Penal Code and further investigation is underway he added PTI ZA NP NP

New Delhi Sept 22 PTI Indias first official framework for air quality forecast SAFAR has been accepted internationally with peer-reviewed Elsevier Journal publishing its findings founder project director Dr Gufran Beig said on Wednesday The framework mandated under the National Clean Air Programme NCAP and developed under the Ministry of Earth Sciences is being used to make air quality forecasts in Delhi Mumbai Pune and Ahmedabad The findings of the framework incorporated in a research paper -- Indias maiden air quality forecasting framework for megacities of divergent environments The SAFAR-project -- were published online in peer-reviewed international Elsevier Journal Environmental Modelling and Software on Tuesday The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology IITM-Pune led the research in association with the India Meteorological Department and Utkal University Bhubaneshwar The research revealed that transport is the most dominating source of PM25 emissions It accounts for 41 percent of PM25 pollution in Delhi 40 percent in Pune 35 percent in Ahmedabad and 31 percent in Mumbai The share of biofuel emissions is highest in Mumbai 155 percent followed by Pune 114 percent Ahmedabad 102 percent and Delhi 3 percent it said We chose to demonstrate the SAFAR framework in four different and contrasting micro-climates of Indian cities - Delhi Mumbai Pune and Ahmedabad The prototype can be scaled up to the remaining 128 non-attainment cities of India as per the commitment to NCAP Beig said NCAP seeks to achieve a 20 to 30 percent reduction in particulate matter PM concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year India has 132 non-attainment cities that do not meet the prescribed air quality standards set by the Union Environment Ministry The SAFAR framework is a one-stop solution for air quality management leading up to mitigation and also helps formulate micro-specific air action plans based on robust science Beig said Six components make up the SAFAR framework Observational Network for Air Pollution and Weather Parameters Quality Control and Quality Assurance Inventory of Emissions To keep track of pollution sources SAFAR-Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Model Data to Information Translation The AQI Concept and Technology and Outreach for Product Development and Dissemination Now that India has its own air quality framework whose credibility is proven beyond doubt we need to take its advantage to become self-sufficient in replicating in other cities as originally envisaged in the NCAP plan document rather than borrowing foreign framework with a cost Beig said Using this all urban local bodies can issue timely health advisories to alert citizens about bad air days which will help save vulnerable groups from severe health impacts of air pollution the senior scientist added PTI GVS AQS AQS