New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the singling out of stubble burning by farmers as the sole reason for the deteriorating air pollution in the capital.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi cautioned against turning the stubble burning issue into a “political issue or an ego issue”. It said there cannot be one single reason for the worsening air quality in Delhi.
The bench orally remarked that stubble burning existed even during the Covid lockdown when the capital experienced unprecedented clear skies. The development took place during the resumed hearing of a plea relating to air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The bench sought a report in a week on measures taken to contain other pollutants.
The counsel for the Centre apprised the bench that the Commission for Air Quality Management in Delhi and adjoining areas has prepared action plans to tackle pollution in these places. The counsel added that stubble burning, vehicular pollution, construction dust, road dust and biomass burning have been named as contributors to pollution.
CJI Kant verbally remarked that it is easy to blame farmers who engage in stubble burning when they are not represented before the court or in a position to defend themselves. “We don’t want to comment on stubble burning as it’s easy to pass off the burden on those who are hardly represented before us,” the CJI orally remarked. He also pointed out that stubble burning had taken place earlier also, but had not resulted in the drastic dip in Delhi’s air quality. The bench reiterated that it would monitor the instant case on a regular basis to tackle the menace.
“We want to see long-term and short-term plans and we will keep taking the case up. None of the cities of the country were developed to accommodate this scale of population or with the thought that each home will have multiple cars. Let us see which measures are suggested to us and how these measures are implemented or are in paper only,” CJI Kant remarked.
