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While hearing the Delhi Air Pollution which had reached alarming levels , the Supreme Court has directed the Centre to call for an emergency meeting tomorrow over issues like stopping construction, non-essential transport, power plants and implementing work from home to deal with air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
Supreme Court concludes that major culprits of air pollution are transport, industries, vehicular traffic apart from stubble burning in some areas.
Supreme Court also observes that the major cause of air pollution in Delhi are dust, heavy vehicular traffic and industries’; says if timely steps taken by the government, pollution can be kept to manageable levels.
Supreme Court asks the Centre and States of NCR region to consider work from home for the employees in the meantime; also asks Chief secretaries of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana to be present for tomorrow’s emergency meeting by the Centre.
Delhi government informed the Supreme Court that it’s ready to impose lockdown but since it doesn’t have air boundaries, Central Government can consider having it in the entire NCR and lockdown has to be imposed as a whole.
Supreme Court tells Centre and State Govt that this is not how an executive emergency meeting was expected to be held, says, “It’s very unfortunate that we have to set an agenda for them”; asks the committee created to decide on the action plan by tomorrow evening.
Supreme Court slams Delhi government, saying it’s passing the buck to Municipal Commissioner.
This kind of lame excuse will force us to hold an audit of the revenue you are earning and spend on popularity slogans – the Supreme Court says
On Saturday, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana termed the rise in air pollution in Delhi-NCR an “emergency” situation and had asked the Centre and the Delhi government to take emergency measures to improve the air quality. The bench also said the situation of pollution is so bad that people are wearing masks inside their houses.
“Everybody has the passion of blaming farmers. Have you seen how crackers are being burnt in Delhi for the last seven days? It is an emergency situation, multiple measures are needed to be taken on the ground level,” the bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant, had said.
The apex court had asked the Centre to revert on Monday. The top court had asked the authorities to take immediate measures such as stopping vehicles or imposing a lockdown in Delhi.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said there is stubble burning in Punjab. The bench, however, said, “Your projection is as if farmers are only responsible. What about steps taken to contain the pollution in Delhi?” Mehta clarified that he was not even remotely suggesting that only farmers are responsible.
