TW Newsdesk, Nov 24: The Supreme Court on this day pulled up the Centre and ordered to lift all pollution-related restrictions only when the Air Quality Index is near 100 in the national capital. The apex court is hearing cases on Delhi air pollution as residents gasp for fresh air.
The court responded to a senior advocate, who said that the government was not imposing fines on stubble burning as neighbouring states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are due polls in early 2022.
“There is a lot of expectations that court is not doing and govt is doing and pollution will come down, some paper said that due to measures of court 40% pollution has come down, we don’t know if its correct or not,” CJI said, as quoted by Bar and Bench. “Ultimately what will you do say it and we can add to it. Now you will review after three days and by the time levels. These restrictions have to come into play automatically,” it added.
Supreme Court further pulled up Centre on the situation in the national capital and said, “when the weather becomes severe then measures are taken. The measures have to be taken in anticipation to stop air pollution. This is the National Capital; imagine the signal we are sending to the world.”
Meanwhile, due to improved wind flow Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was recorded at 280 this morning, slightly better than yesterday. For the past 20 days, AQI in the national capital has been oscillating between ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories. As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), a central forecasting agency, the PM 10 was recorded at 220 in the ‘moderate’ category, while PM 2.5 was recorded in the ‘poor’ category.
R K Jenamani, senior scientist at India Meteorological Department told the Times of India, “The wind speed picked up to 8-12kmph during the afternoon, but calm wind was recorded during evening hours.” Another Met official said, “Strong winds blew on Monday and the speed even touched 25kmph. Due to relatively better winds on Monday, the air quality started improving from Monday afternoon. Hence, the 24-hour average AQI of Delhi improved to the ‘poor’ category on Tuesday at 4 pm. The wind speed again deteriorated on Tuesday evening, and calm wind leads to accumulation of pollutants.”
