New Delhi: The city’s air quality was stuck in the ‘very poor’ category for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday. There’s little respite in sight with the Air Quality Index (AQI) predicted to remain in this range till at least Oct 26. According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the city’s 4pm AQI, considered the day’s standard reading, stood at 305, better than 353 recorded on Wednesday and 351 the day before. Anand Vihar in east Delhi continued to be the most polluted station with a reading of 413 (‘severe’). The average AQI showed a downward trend during the day as the winds picked up: from 326 at 8 am, it fell to 316 at noon.Dipankar Saha, former head of CPCB’s air laboratory, said the composite effect of poor ventilation coefficient, largely calm wind conditions and reduced inversion have deteriorated the air quality in Delhi-NCR. “The winds have been dropping during the past few nights, leading to pollutants being trapped. Westerly winds start blowing at 10 to 12 kmph from noon, gradually dispersing the pollutants. With this cycling set to repeat in the next few days, no significant change in air quality is expected,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, Skymet Meteorology. Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, which functions under the Union ministry of earth sciences, also forecast the air quality to remain in the ‘very poor’ category till Oct 26. However, things may not improve beyond that as well, with strong north-westerly winds likely to blow into Delhi from Oct 26 till 28. This may bring in pollutants from farm fires.However, the impact of stubble burning on the city remains negligible till now. Satellites detected 98 such fires in the neighbouring states on Thursday. Of these, 43 farm fires originated in Rajasthan, 28 in Punjab, 13 in UP and 14 in MP, according to satellite data compiled by Indian Agricultural Research Institute. According to Decision Support System, which estimates the contribution of local and regional sources of pollution in Delhi‘s PM2.5 levels, the share of farm fires in the city’s air was just 1.6% on Wednesday. DSS estimated the highest contributor on Thursday was the city’s transport sector (17.26%), followed by 7.2% and 6.2% of emissions emanating from Jhajjar and Sonipat. Environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who chaired a review meeting on pollution, said around 2,000 teams have been deployed to monitor dust pollution, open burning and industrial and vehicles emissions.