The Graded Response Action Plan

Prelims and MainsCurrent affairs on this: Air pollution

The Graded Response Action Plan is the set of emergency curbs that switch on in Delhi and the National Capital Region as air worsens, in four stages tied to the Air Quality Index (AQI): Stage I at 201 to 300 (poor), Stage II at 301 to 400 (very poor), Stage III at 401 to 450 (severe) and Stage IV above 450 (severe plus). Each stage adds to the one below, from dust control at Stage I to trucks stopped and construction halted at Stage IV. It was notified in 2017 after a Supreme Court order and is run since 2021 by the Commission for Air Quality Management, whose schedule, last revised in September 2026, is in force.

GRAP stages and what they switch on (schedule as revised September 2026)

Stage	AQI band	Air quality	Main curbs added
I	201 to 300	Poor	dust control at construction sites, ban on open burning, mechanised sweeping and sprinkling, emission enforcement on vehicles, more bus and metro services, diesel generators regulated by capacity, interstate buses limited to electric, CNG and BS VI diesel
II	301 to 400	Very poor	parking fees raised, staggered office hours
III	401 to 450	Severe	non essential construction stopped, stone crushers and mining closed, BS III petrol and BS IV diesel light vehicles restricted, hybrid classes up to Class V, offices at 50 per cent
IV	above 450	Severe plus	BS IV and older trucks stopped at the border except essential goods, construction ban extended to highways and pipelines, hybrid classes VI to IX and XI, closure of colleges and non emergency commercial activity and odd even left to the State Governments

Each stage adds to the one below; the bands are the numbers UPSC could set a true or false statement on. Stage IV does not close schools.Source: CAQM GRAP schedule as revised November 2025

Notified in January 2017 under the Environment (Protection) Act after the Supreme Court's order of December 2016 in M.C. Mehta, and run first by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA). The bands have been stable since 2022, when GRAP moved from PM2.5 and PM10 concentration triggers to AQI bands; the 2024 and 2025 revisions changed the curbs, not the bands.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) was created by ordinance in 2020, re promulgated in 2021 and made statutory by the Commission for Air Quality Management Act, 2021, which dissolved EPCA; it covers Delhi and the NCR districts of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
CAQM also acts through numbered statutory directions that the States enforce, each naming a sector, a rule and a date: Direction 101, no fuel without a valid pollution certificate, enforced by number plate cameras at fuel stations from 1 October 2026; Direction 70, diesel auto rickshaws out of NCR districts by 31 December 2026; Direction 92, brick kilns in Punjab and non NCR Haryana to co fire paddy straw pellets, rising to 50 per cent by November 2028; Direction 98, an industrial particulate limit of 50 mg/Nm³ with closure for violators.
Since 2022 the stages are invoked on forecasts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), at least three days before the projected breach, so a stage can start before the reading crosses its band. Revocation is a decision of CAQM's sub committee on the observed trend and the forecast, not a fixed number of days.
Which curb sits in which stage keeps moving: the November 2025 revision moved augmented bus and metro services from Stage II to Stage I and the 50 per cent office attendance rule from Stage IV to Stage III. The September 2026 revision moved the curbs on diesel generator sets and on buses of BS IV and below from Stage II to Stage I.
The Supreme Court has more than once pulled up CAQM, holding on 18 November 2024 that its "wait and watch" approach after AQI crossed 450 was wrong and that Stage IV would continue until the Court allowed relaxation.

Mains: GRAP shows why emergency curbs cannot substitute for source control: it stops construction and trucks for days at a time at real economic cost, while the stubble, vehicle and dust sources that create the emergency are unchanged the next season.

Further reading: The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021 (PRS India)