Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 17

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that instead of asking its employees in Delhi to work from home, it has advised them to go for carpooling to reduce the number of vehicles used by them for commuting.

In an affidavit filed in the top court ahead of the crucial hearing on the worsening air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the Centre said this had been done in view of the fact that things were getting back to normal after a long time due to Covid pandemic during which most of its employees worked from home.

The affidavit also sought to underline that the number of vehicles used by the Central Government was a minuscule fraction of the total vehicles in Delhi and stopping them from plying would not make much difference in air quality in the national capital.

A construction workers’ body also moved the top court seeking ex-gratia payment for daily workers to make up for loss of income due to sudden and complete ban on construction activities in Delhi-NCR to curb dust and air pollution.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas has told the court that it has issued several directions, including truck ban and construction ban, to improve the air quality in Delhi-NCR. It has also asked NCR states to close all schools, colleges and educational institutes and to hold online classes until further orders.

A Bench led by CJI NV Ramana -- which had on Monday asked the Centre and NCR states, including Punjab and Haryana, to hold an emergency meeting to decide on the measures needed to check the deteriorating air quality -- will take up a PIL filed by Aditya Dubey on the issue on Wednesday.

The governments of Punjab and Haryana -- where the problem of stubble burning has been a contributory factor aggravating the worsening air pollution condition -- have also filed affidavits.

The Punjab government has proposed to give Rs 100 per quintal of paddy stubble to farmers who choose not to burn it.

Police and fire tenders would be deployed to put out farm fires caused by stubble burning, it added.

The Haryana government informed the top court that all industries, except those running on PNG/CNG cleaner fuel, had been asked to remain closed till the end of this month.

It has also decided to close down two thermal power plant units in Panipat with a total capacity of 450 MW till the end of November.

Earlier, the Delhi government had said it was ready to take steps like complete lockdown to control air pollution but such a step would be meaningful only if implemented across the NCR areas in neighbouring states.

Contrary to the top court’s observation that “stubble burning is not responsible for causing air pollution to that extent”, the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas had earlier blamed it for about 35-40 per cent of total current pollution in the NCR.

“Post Diwali there has been a spurt in the number of fire incidents owing to paddy stubble burning, particularly in the state of Punjab where about 42,285 incidents have been reported in the last 10 days alone, out of a cumulative fire count of 62,863 till November 13 during this season,” the Commission had recorded in its meeting held on November 14.

“Likewise, the instances of paddy stubble burning in Haryana have also witnessed an increase with respect to last year (with 5,400 incidents being reported so far in 2021 against a cumulative figure of 3,635 in the corresponding period in 2020),” it had noted.