Coming down heavily on the government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Delhi can't be made to go through air pollution issue year after year. The Supreme Court also observed that schemes like odd-even for vehicles to tackle pollution issues are mere optics and posted the matter for hearing on Friday. The AAP government in Delhi on Monday announced that the odd-even car rationing system will be enforced from November 13 to 20 to combat air pollution in the city which was seven to eight times above the safe level.
When the odd-even was implemented in the past, emergency and police vehicles, two-wheelers, cars driven by women and vehicles ferrying school children and VIPs were exempted. The directives have been issued to implement the stringent restrictions mandated under the final stage of the Central government's air pollution control plan for Delhi-NCR called the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
On Stubble burning
Amid 'Severe' air pollution in the national capital, the Supreme Court asked the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government to stop the stubble burning in the state, further directing it to take steps "immediately". The top court observed that there cannot be a political fighting all the time. “We want it (stubble burning) stopped. We don't know how you do it, it’s your job. But it must be stopped. Something has to be done immediately,” Supreme Court told the Punjab government. The top court also directed the Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan governments to stop stubble burning forthwith.
The remarks of the Supreme Court come after several incidents of stubble burning were reported lately, which is one of contributing factors behind air pollution in the national capital. The AAP on Monday had blamed the Haryana government for pollution in Delhi stating that Punjab is 500 km away from the national capital while Haryana is just 100 km distant.
