Environmentalists question Delhi’s ineffective pollution control as AQI drops

KOLKATA | Updated: 10 November, 2023 6:13 pm IST

Air pollution in Delhi has reached an alarming point (TNI photo by Sumit Kumar)

KOLKATA: Environmental activists questioned the “poor” implementation of Supreme Court orders to stop stubble burning, as Delhi’s air quality plummets beyond “stable categories”, on Friday.

While speaking with The New Indian, activist and co-founder of the Warrior Moms initiative, Bhavreen Kandhari said, “The SC’s order to stop stubble burning is encouraging and it feels good to know but the implementation is poor. It is so poor that irrespective of so many orders and so much being said, nothing has changed as such.”

The SC had noted in its order, on November 8, that states such as Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh are the major contributors to the air pollution in Delhi through their practice of stubble burning, while urging them to stop it.

Kandhari while questioning the implementation and the policy making stated, “In 2019, the SC had ordered the government to pay the farmers Rs 100 per quintal but did anybody go there and check whether they have received it or not?” She added, “They (SC) should compel the state government. The biggest stakeholders are the farmers here but the farmers are seen nowhere. None of the farmers have been asked and the government is keeping them in the dark. What are we doing?”

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Emphasising implementation, Kandhari said, “The implementation has to be rigorous and we should be on the war footing to implement it. You cannot ask the farmers to give up on a crop which is in demand.” The environmental activist said that the grassroots have to be involved and the farmers have to be provided with incentives. “The gram panchayat has to be accountable. We can’t keep waiting as after all, our children’s lungs are getting damaged,” she said.

Kandhari illustrated that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take cognizance of the matter. She said, “PM should take all (stakeholders) under one roof and bring a solution because afterall it’s a public health emergency, a desperate situation. When will they speak if not now?”

However, SN Ghosh, a renowned emission expert, shifted the share of the blame to vehicular congestion in the national capital, alongside the myriad small-scale industries which do not have pollution control devices. “The vehicles on Delhi roads are also a source of air pollution. Although there are various measures being taken by the state govt and the most popular one is Odd and even day, BS4, BS5 but the fact is traffic congestion,” said Ghosh.

The Supreme court is scheduled to rule upon the odd-even rule.