SC says public awareness, not curbs alone, can help curb pollution

NEW DELHI: Acknowledging that the enormous amount of judicial time spent over the years to tackle pollution in Delhi had yielded only marginal benefits, Supreme Court Friday said when more and more restrictions, without scientific basis, were put in place, people tended to violate them with a vengeance, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra. Reflecting on numerous orders and subsequent monitoring of their implementation to improve air quality, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said, "To think we can achieve air quality of less than 100 (AQI) in Delhi during winters is utopian when 'very poor' and 'severe' have become the new normal." When amicus curiae and senior advocate Aparajita Singh flagged news reports on normal crackers being sold as green crackers and attributed part of the rising pollution to it, the bench said the capital was witnessing bumper-to-bumper traffic for the last few days and with so many cars remaining on the road for so many extra hours, it must be adding to the pollution load. Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati attributed the traffic congestion to the festive season and senior advocate Sanjiv Sen, who was appearing for MCD, said the culture of distribution of gifts was one of the major reasons for the huge spurt in road traffic. At this juncture, Singh drew the court's attention to sale of normal crackers as green crackers in flagrant violation of court orders and warned of a huge post-Diwali spike in pollution levels. The bench said, "Diwali celebrations must be accompanied with public awareness campaigns. It is awareness that alone can curb pollution. No number of restrictions is going to work. More the number of orders from the court, the more the violations. That is the tendency of people. We will go by expert advice." The CJI said local councillors must create awareness among people. The bench said it would pass some orders and seek compliance from NCR states. Bhati informed the court that the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM), the expert body tasked with devising and implementing short-term, intermediate and long-term measures to tackle air pollution, had put Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in place. "Each stage of GRAP triggers more restrictions - stoppage of construction, bar on entry of BS-IV emission standard vehicles, sprinkling of water, staggered office hours," she said, adding that there was a massive augmentation of clean fuel public transport. "But every human activity contributes to pollution," Bhati added, pointing out that factories in Delhi operated on clean fuel and thermal power plants had been closed. She said the main pollution load came from vehicles as Delhi had a staggering number of them. "Major contributor to pollution in Delhi is vehicles and other local sources. Stubble burning in winters, which has drastically declined in Haryana and to some extent in Punjab, tips the scales because of the unique geographical position of Delhi and the wind direction make the national capital a receptor of pollution," the ASG said.

Singh said monitoring implementation of anti-pollution measures was crucial and complained that transport vehicles continued to idle at MCD toll plazas at 126 entry points. Refuting the claim, Sen said after the integration of technology, no transport vehicle idled at any of the nine toll plazas, which handle 90% of commercial traffic into Delhi.