Public health emergency in Delhi:SC to hear pleas on pollution

The alarming rise in pollution levels in Delhi is a case of "public health emergency" which requires close monitoring to ensure "stringent" enforcement of earlier directions of the Supreme Court, pleas filed before it have maintained.
"We will hear them tomorrow," a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao said when some lawyers and the representative of the apex court- appointed Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) mentioned the matters relating to pollution level in Delhi and NCR for urgent hearing.
Sunita Narain of EPCA termed the smog cover that has engulfed the national capital as the "worst" in last 17 years and said there was a need for "short-term emergency action and strict enforcement" of the court's directions for effective control of "toxic and dangerous air pollution".

EPCA, in its fresh report, today said the PM 2.5 level, as recorded on November 5, is at 837.7 ug/m3 in Delhi, almost 14.4 times higher than tolerable standard limit of 60 ug/m3.
Aparajita Singh, who along with senior advocate Harish Salve, have been appointed as amicus curiae in the matter, urged the apex court to take up the matter urgently saying Delhi is facing "public health emergency".
"EPCA would request the Supreme Court to closely monitor this critical situation so as to ensure that enforcement is stringent and that based on the level of risk, it can direct remedial action. We believe this is an extremely dangerous situation and one that needs drastic action - short term and long term - as current levels of pollution are extremely toxic and extremely hazardous for human health," EPCA said.

Listing out reasons for the present situation, EPCA said "the key cause of this extremely high pollution that is seen in Delhi and its vicinity is a combination of factors - already high pollution in Delhi because of numbers of vehicles; unchecked construction and road dust and garbage burning; compounded by Diwali crackers and the burning of paddy residue by farmers in Punjab and Haryana and near still weather conditions without wind and the onset of winter."

Besides EPCA, Supreme Court lawyer R K Kapoor also filed
a fresh PIL on the issue saying the state has a duty to secure the right to life of its citizens.

There is a "fundamental duty prescribed under Article 51A (h),(g) of the Constitution" of the state "to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures."
"Citizens have to breathe in every polluted particle from the air which results in increase in asthma and cancer in the lungs," the PIL said.
Framing questions of law, the plea asked "whether the respondent authorities are not bound to take immediate steps to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens including the rights granted under article 21 of the Constitution?"
"Whether short-term and long-term measures are not required to be taken by the respondent authorities to protect the health and life of the citizens of Delhi," another question read.

During the brief mentioning today, EPCA referred to its report and said the present levels of PM2.5 has increased over 14 times, which is both "alarming and dangerous for human health" and it was "higher than what was recorded during the London smog incident".
"This severe smog episode is a result of many factors and must be treated as a public health emergency," it said.
EPCA said the apex court, from time to time, has been issuing a slew of directions including restricting traffic flow into Delhi and imposing green cess to curb pollution, but now there was a need to monitor and ensure implementation of the directives already issued.

"Priority actions for control of pollution in winter are as follows: strict enforcement of ECC (environment compensation charge) on Delhi-bound trucks so that there is control on numbers, including enforcement to check and divert all non-Delhi bound truck traffic and age limit (as stipulated by Hon'ble Supreme Court).
"Ensuring the early introduction of RFID will improve compliance and enforcement of this measure," the EPCA said.
Referring to enforcement of directions for effective action to control pollution, EPCA said there has to be strict compliance of directives on control of "dust pollution from construction activities and roads through vacuum cleaning; water spraying and horticulture.