with concentrations reaching 66 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum for PM2.5. The disclosure followed accusations from opposition politicians that authorities deliberately allowed official readings to go missing for several hours overnight Sunday into Monday, just as pollution spiked during the Hindu festival of lights. New Delhi, one of the world's most polluted capitals, already suffers winter smog from vehicle emissions, farm fires and industry. The Central Pollution Control Board rejected claims of deliberate under-reporting. It explained that particulate analysers, installed when the National Air Quality Index launched in 2015, were calibrated to measure up to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter. Automated validation treats hourly readings beyond that range as invalid, so they are excluded from calculations - producing what the board called apparent "data gaps" during "extreme episodes" like Diwali firecracker bursting. The gaps meant official data failed to capture the pollution at its worst. The scale became clear only when monitors resumed reporting about eight hours after the fireworks peaked, with readings hitting 879 micrograms per cubic meter in the Mandir Marg locality - more than 58 times the WHO daily limit. Opposition leaders seized on the missing figures. AAP's Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the government of "data fraud", while Congress lawmakers Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera warned that absent data does not mean absent pollution, and that the smoke Delhi residents inhaled would continue to threaten their health and life expectancy. (Bssnews)