New Delhi’s air quality monitoring infrastructure has come under heavy scrutiny after officials admitted that recent pollution levels following the Diwali festival were so high they exceeded the measurement limits of the sensors. While residents were blanketed in thick, toxic smog, the automated system failed to record the peak concentrations, creating significant data gaps. Critics and opposition leaders have slammed the government, accusing them of "data fraud" and suggesting that the shutdown of monitoring stations was a deliberate attempt to downplay the severity of the crisis during the holiday.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has defended the gaps, explaining that the devices were calibrated with a maximum capacity of 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre. According to regulators, the system is programmed to exclude any readings that fall outside this calibrated range to ensure data validation, meaning that during extreme spikes caused by firecrackers and other seasonal factors, the equipment essentially goes "offline." However, environmental advocates argue that this technological limitation obscures the reality of the health hazards facing millions of people, noting that even when readings resumed, they remained nearly 60 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safety recommendations.