Pollution a pan-India issue, says SC seeking list of most polluted cities

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that pollution is a "pan-India" issue which needs to be tackled while asking the central government to submit a list of highly polluted cities in the country. A division bench headed by Justice Abhay S Oka said a machinery similar to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), which identifies and resolves problems pertaining to air quality in Delhi-NCR region, should be created for all states and Union territories. Speaking for the bench, Justice Oka said, "Give a list of other major cities with the problem of air pollution and whether, for those cities, some machinery can be created. We will expand this issue pan India. We should not give a wrong signal that sitting in the Supreme Court we are only dealing with air pollution in Delhi."

The direction was issued after one of the court commissioners, appointed by the top court, informed the bench that restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi were failing as anti-pollution measures were not being strictly adhered to by cities outside Delhi-NCR.