Emergency Measures like Lockdown needed to tackle the pollution, Supreme Court asked Delhi government

As CJI Ramana said to the Centre, “Air quality in Delhi is in the ‘severe’ category and in another 2 to 3 days it will dip further. Take an emergency decision. We will look at a long term solution later.” The level of pollution in delhi is touching greet heights which is affecting the standard of life of the population. The temperature fall, several fires and the wind speed is further leading to the fall in the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi.

When a plea was issued to the Supreme Court to check the aur quality in Delhi which is severely bad, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana-led Supreme Court bench suggested the give to take emergency measures like lockdown for a few days to tackle the rising AQI levels.

CJI Ramana asked the Center, “Tell us how we can reduce AQI from 500 at least by 200 points. Take some urgent measures. Can you think of two days lockdown or something? How can people live? Air quality in Delhi is in the ‘severe’ category and in another 2 to 3 days it will dip further. Take an emergency decision. We will look at a long term solution later.”

The CJI said, “You see how bad the situation is….even in our houses, we are wearing masks.” It is hard to breath for some people in the polluted capital of our country.

The Delhi government claimed to install smog towers and emission control projects to handle smog problems and deteriorating Air quality but no efforts are done till now for the installation which upsetted the bench.

The Bench questioned the Delhi government’s decision to open schools and other educational institutions by saying, “You have opened all schools in the national capital and now children are exposed to pollutants. This is not the Centre’s but your jurisdiction. What is happening on that front?.”

Sending children to school is considered to be exposing our future to pollution,pandemic and nowadays viral disease dengue by Dr. Guleria (AIIMS). He said, “Little children have to go to school in this weather, we are exposing them to this.”

The bench realized it has become a habit of Delhi government and others to just blame the farmers activity of burning stubble during this time for the deteriorating Air quality and just neglecting their ignorance. The bench asked Arvind Kejriwal led AAP government, “There was ban on firecrackers, what happened with that?.”

Along with Delhi Government, the bench also questioned the steps taken by the Central government I the matter. Their policies do not seem to work because of lack of proper implementation maybe when it comes to raising Air quality. The bench said, “Central government says 2 lakh machines are available for stubble burning and in market there are 2-3 kinds of machines available but farmers can’t afford to buy them. Why can’t Centre/State govts provide these machines to farmers or take away the stubble?” The Bench asked the central government to look into the matters other than politics and government too as they are the need of the hour now. The bench stated, “Something must happen so that in two to three days we feel better.”

After all the discussion, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Centre that today’s meeting will need to focus on the emergency situation of air pollution.