Air quality panel must take action: What Supreme Court said on stubble burning

With the paddy harvest and festive seasons around the corner, the Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Commission for Air Quality Monitoring (CAQM) for failing to take effective steps to curb stubble burning and other sources of air pollution in Delhi.
Every year as the weather cools, Delhi and the National Capital Region (NRC) suffer from hazardous smog. Various studies by government and private agencies, since 2013, have identified the reasons for deterioration in air quality, a major one being burning of the leftover crop stubble in the paddy fields of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The CAQM Act provides for the constitution of a commission for better co-ordination, research, identification, and resolution of air pollution-related problems in Delhi-NCR and adjoining regions.
During the hearing on Friday, the bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih took note of the reports that ISRO’s bird’s eye surveillance had flagged more than 90 cases of stubble burning in Punjab and over 70 in Haryana in the last few days.
“The commission must immediately swing into action to ensure that equipment provided through central funds is actually used by the farmers”, directed the bench.
While Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the CAQM, assured the court that machinery including harvesters etc had been procured over the last five years and was being made available to the farmers through local hiring centers, Justice Masih, who hails from Punjab, pointed out that he has been “made aware” that the harvesters and other equipment are not always available.
“Unfortunately for you I’m from Punjab. There are only one or two machines available in the districts and because of that the work stalls. Additionally, these machines can only be used at harvest time. After that there is no space to store them. There is no safe storage or maintenance and by the next year the machines cannot be used. That’s the feedback that has come to us”, Masih observed.
Furthermore, the bench asked why the commission did not take action to penalise district level officials for failing to take adequate steps to curb stubble burning.
The court also accepted the suggestion by Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae, that citizens who want to complain regarding incidents of stubble burning or industrial pollution should be able to access the social media handles of CAQM as well as the central pollution control board.
The court has directed that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and state pollution control bodies must now tag the CAQM as well as the implementing authority while responding to any complaints on their social media pages to enable the CAQM to monitor the response of the authorities.
The relevant authorities, which includes the state and municipal bodies, district officials, police and panchayat bodies have also been directed to tag the CAQM and CPCB on any response made to complaints on their social media pages, and upload the compliance and resolution of the issue or reasons for non-compliance as a response to the complaint on social media.
These steps would allow the CAQM and the citizens to keep track of the steps being taken in response to complaints relating to air pollution and related issues.
Ahead of winter, Delhi grapples with an air quality crisis every year, which spikes to hazardous levels around Diwali. Stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab is among the major air pollution contributors.
The top court will now hear the matter on October 3.