Karnal, Nov. 8 -- Of the country's 19 cities with air quality index (AQI) above 300, categorised in the "very poor" category on Saturday, 10 were from Haryana. Ballabgarh recorded the worst air in the country on the eve of the Diwali festival. Ballabgarh, the industrial town of Faridabad district, recorded the AQI at 409 (severe), worse than the national capital Delhi which was in the "very poor" category at 369. On Friday, the commission for air quality management's (CAQM) imposed Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi and the NCR due to air pollution. According to the daily AQI bulletin issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI in Sirsa was 383, followed by Panchgaon at 377, Bahadurgarh at 364, Gurugram at 345, Faridabad at 336, Rohtak at 320, Hisar at 316, Jind at 310, Bhiwani at 307 and Sonepat at 304. AQI defines the overall air quality like a thermometer running from 0 to 500 degrees with six remarks and color codes: good/dark green (0-50), satisfactory/green (51-100), moderate/yellow (101-200), poor/orange (201-300), very poor/red (301-400) and severe/maroon (above 401). The situation was worrying in other parts of the state as well with Kaithal's AQI was "poor" at 289, followed by Manesar and Panipat both at 279, Charkhi Dadri at 262, Narnaul at 255, Karnal at 254, Kurukshetra and Ambala both at 241 and Fatehabad at 221. Apart from this, the burning of stubble residue also remains a major contributor to the air quality in the region. The state reported six cases of paddy residue burning, with the highest three cases reported in Kaithal district alone. Karnal recorded two cases and Jind recorded one. According to the consolidated report, a total of 95 cases have been reported in the state until Saturday, which is less than half of the 224 cases lodged last season until this date. A whopping 906 cases of residue burning were recorded in 2024 during the same period. According to the report, Kaithal tops the chart with 24 total cases lodged so far, followed by 11 in Kurukshetra, 10 in Palwal and Karnal, 8 in Ambala, 6 in Fatehabad, 5 in Jind, 4 in Yamunanagar, 3 in Sirsa, and 2 each in Sonepat, Panipat and Faridabad, while Panchkula and Rohtak have only one case each. Karnal deputy director of agriculture (DDA) Jaswinder Saini said that an FIR has been filed against four farmers for burning stubble. "These farmers have also been fined and a red entry has been made in the revenue records, preventing them from availing any future benefits of government schemes. Nor will they be able to sell their crops at the minimum support price (MSP)," he said. Kurukshetra DDA Girish Nagpal appealed to farmers to avoid burning stubble and instead use in-situ and ex-situ methods for management for which the state government provides a subsidy of Rs.1,200 per acre....