High Court slams agencies as air quality remains ‘severe’
EPCA has asked industries not running on clean fuels to remain closed till Friday
NEW DELHI: Delhi's air quality continued to reamin in “severe” category on Thursday with average AQI being recorded at 460. Meanwhile, schools were advised to remain shut till Friday after Supreme Court's Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) intervened.
National Capital's air quality has been deteriorating from the past couple of days, while this is the second time that schools had been forced to shut due to air pollution. EPCA also asked industries not running on clean fuels to remain closed till Friday.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court slammed governments, various departments and other concerned authorities on the state of air pollution in Delhi.
It said that the problem is of implementation and not lack of ideas. “There is complete lack of will to implement the same…,” said a bench comprising of Justice G.S. Sistani and Anup Jairam Bhambani.
It added that one needs to realise the issue of air pollution as a collective responsibility. The court said that an actual effect would only come, if all the authorities worked together to solve the issue.
The court ordered that no fresh demolition should be allowed till January and have asked New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and other municipal corporations in the city as well as other authorities concerned to take necessary steps to deal with encroachment on the roads. “Routine inspections should be done whenever such steps to
combat air pollution are taken,” said the court.
Meanwhile, Central government-based agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) predicted that there
has been less amout of stubble burning cases. “The effective stubble fire counts estimated as per satellites are only 69 on November 13, under dense cloudy conditions when satellite capability to detect is questionable,” reprted SAFAR.
Change in direction of winds has also contributed to the changing air quality. Areas such as Anand Vihar (491), Ashok Vihar (483), Bawana (470), DTU (473), Dwarka Sector – 8 (498), ITO (478), Lodhi Road (442), Mundka (478), Sirifort (478) remained in severe category.
However, SAFAR said that marginal improvement is expected by Friday “within severe range”. Improvement in the air quality is expected by November 16.
In such condition, a marathon was organised by Prayas, a non-governmental organisation, on its 31st anniversary. The marathon drew a lot of attention, with twitter criticising the organisation for making children run in such heavy pollution.