Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Punjab government over stubble burning while thick shadows of gauze shrouded the corridor of Delhi as the air quality across the public capital continued to remain in the’ severe’ order. “It is observed that there can not be a political battle all the time.” they want it( stubble burning) stopped and added that they don’t know how you do it,as it’s their job.But it must be stopped. commodity has to be done incontinently, the Supreme Court told the Punjab government.
A bench of judges Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia, hearing air pollution matters, directed Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to stop stubble burning” forthwith”, making principal registers and director general of police concerned responsible for overseeing the perpetration of the court order. Justice Kaul observed that while travelling through Punjab over the weekend, he saw wide fires on both sides of the road. The court also put the responsibility on the Centre, recommending that it should discontinue the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy in Punjab and find ways to shift growers towards non-essential crops.The government has been propagating millets. Why not promote it?, the court said. It suspended the hail till Friday.
Incidents in Punjab that led to the urgent attention of the Supreme Court:
On Monday, Punjab reported over 2,000 ranch fires as numerous corridors of Haryana saw air quality indicators in the ‘severe’ and’ veritably poor’ orders while it was’ poor’ in areas of the border state. As growers continued to set crop residue ablaze, 2,060 fresh stubble- burning incidents were recorded in Punjab, taking the total number of similar cases to 19,463 till Monday, according to Ludhiana- grounded Punjab Remote seeing Centre data.
Stubble- burning incidents reported from November 1 till November 6 constitute 61 per cent of the total similar cases in the current season, news agency PTI reported citing the data. The total stubble- burning incidents of 19,463 registered from September 15 till November 6 was 35 per cent lower than 29,999 similar cases in the matching period last time, the data stated. The state had reported 32,734 ranch fires during the same period in 2021.
Delhi Pollution at its severity.
Meanwhile, Haryana’s Fatehabad recorded an air quality indicator( AQI) of 425, followed by Faridabad at 412, Sonipat at 412, Jind 385, Hisar 380, Gurugram 376, Kaithal 370, Narnaul 340, Bhiwani 334, Rohtak 326 and Sirsa 308. In the state of Punjab, Amritsar-a famous tourist city reported an AQI at 329, followed by Bathinda at 297, Ludhiana 283, Jalandhar 231and Patiala 220. Union Territory Chandigarh, the common capital of Punjab and Haryana, saw an AQI of 149.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the major reasons behind the intimidating shaft in air pollution situations in Delhi in October and November.
Supreme Court’s order on various concerning issues:
On Tuesday, the top court also directed Rajasthan and other countries to follow its earlier order on the issue relating to firecrackers during the gleeful season. The Supreme Court directed the Rajasthan government to take way to minimise air pollution, especially during the jubilee, adding that it’s everyone’s duty to manage pollution.
The court order came while dealing with an operation raising high pollution situations in Udaipur grounded on the falling air quality indicator and no regulations to demarcate noise pollution situations
The court said that when it comes to pollution, it’s a wrong perception that it’s the duty of courts but it has to be everybody’s duty.
