Delhi High Court seeks action plan to bring down air pollution

Highlighting the issue of poor air quality in the national capital, the Delhi high court on Thursday directed the Centre, the AAP government and other authorities to submit plans to bring the pollution levels within the prescribed limits.

Irked by the lack of action plans from the governments and most of the authorities, a two-judge bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked each department/authority before it to nominate an officer who would ensure compliance of the court’s directions. The bench noted that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, represented by advocate Sanjeev Ralli, had filed an action plan as well as pollution data which indicated that during three periods — October-November, December-January and May-June — the air pollution in the capital peaked at very high levels.

In October-November, it was due to burning of biomass and crops by the neighbouring states, in December-January it was on account of temperature inversions and in May-June due to dust storms, the DPCC told the court. The data indicated that apart from these three periods, the “background pollution” levels during remainder of the year were also beyond prescribed norms. The bench said: “This clearly indicates that apart from the peak levels, background pollution levels are way out of prescribed norms. The reasons for this may be many, including dust pollution from construction activities.”