What a “terrible” future are we giving to our children, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Friday as it castigated the Centre and AAP government for “shifting blame” and not taking steps to tackle the alarming air pollution level in Delhi, dubbed as the worst in 17 years.
The slugfest over pollution continued on Friday as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed burning of paddy stubbles in neighbouring states as the main source of pollution in Delhi-NCR even as the Union environment ministry said otherwise.
“Crop burning has been controlled in almost all states except Punjab where large-scale burning has been reported and during the meeting Punjab has assured that it will make efforts to check it,” Union secretary A.N. Jha said after a review meeting with secretaries of NCR states. Al states unanimously agreed that there is a “compelling” requirement to take immediate measures to control air pollution.
Faced with “severe” air pollution problem in Delhi, Union environment secretary on Friday held a review meeting with secretaries of NCR states, where the latter unanimously agreed that there is a “compelling” requirement to take immediate measures to control air pollution.
During the meeting, the possibility of imposing a condition during the environment clearance granted to major projects located in Punjab for contribution of funds under CSR towards control of stubble burning was also agreed upon.
While speaking to the media, Mr Kejriwal said the burning of paddy stubbles has been the main reason for air pollution in the city. A day before Diwali, the Delhi government had released Nasa images, claiming that burning of agricultural residue are causing a blanket of haze across entire north India, including Delhi.
“For you (authorities), the people of Delhi do not matter but for us, they matter. We will do whatever we can,” a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar said, adding “just look at what we are giving to our children for future. This is terrible”.
Terming the situation akin to that of an “emergency”, the tribunal observed that the Centre, Delhi government and other authorities were “not bothered” about the rising air pollution level and its consequences on the health of citizens of Delhi but instead “shifting the blame on each other”.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will also develop an App immediately to report burning of garbage, biomass, dry leaves, including landfill fires and all states agencies will be linked to it which will provide information on fires arising from crop burning.
