Centre's anti-pollution steps ad hoc, says Supreme Court

The Centre's measures to control air pollution were ad hoc, the Supreme Court has said. The court asked the Modi government to draw up a long-term scientific strategy to ensure clean air for the nation's capital.

A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said, "all these are ad hoc plans. You must come up with a long-term scientific strategy to deal with the problem."

The bench's reaction came to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's contention that air pollution levels had reduced in the capital since the last hearing, thanks to local weather patterns. Air quality index (AQI) was 290 on Tuesday, Mehta said. The bench retorted that the AQI was 381 on Wednesday morning. For the record, only AQI values below 100 are considered satisfactory and healthy.


Mehta spoke of a range of measures taken to 'arrest rising pollution'. The air pollution level was decreasing, he said. "There is reasonable improvement in air pollution levels." Construction activity has resumed, schools have reopened but trucks carrying non-essential stuff would not be allowed into NCR till Friday.

Justice Chandrachud dubbed them as ad hoc measures. "This is the national capital. What kind of signals do you send across the globe? You must compile data for the last 50 years regarding weather patterns in the area, create a scientific model and come up with a long term strategy," he said.

The bench noted that there was no substantial change in the air pollution levels. It may turn serious yet again and called upon the government to continue with measures to arrest the alarming pollution levels. The bench said it will again reassess the ground situation on Monday.

Appearing for the petitioner Aditya Dubey, senior advocate Vikas Singh said that no fines were imposed on farmers burning stubble as it was an election year. The bench asked state governments to step up attempts to convince farmers not to burn stubble. Stubble burning at its peak contributes more than 30% to NCR's pollution. Industries, vehicular pollution and dust are other major pollutants.

The court has been demanding that the government take extreme measures such as shutting down NCR so that vehicular pollution is minimal, but the government has resisted the idea as a measure of last resort and continues to follow its plan. It has, however, failed to effectively draw up and implement a policy yet to make the annual smog hovering over NCR disappear.