The Supreme Court today directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to prepare standards for emission by industries in the National Capital Region (NCR) to bring down the level of air pollutants.
A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed thye CPCB to prepare the standards for emission by June 30, which should be followed by industries by December this year.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court in the case, submitted that standards for emission should be formulated and if industries do not comply with them within sven month, then they should be closed down.
Salve, who is appearing in a 1985 PIL filed by environmentalist M C Mehta, also highlighted the ill-effects of petcoke and furnace oil used in industries on ambient air and said that the emissions from such units were highly toxic as these released high sulphur content.
The apex court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), on the other hand claimed that even China has stopped using sulphur-heavy fuels since 2014 and Indian industries have been buying petcoke.
The counsel for the EPCA said that emission of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides has to be brought down for improving the quality of air in the national capital and adjoining areas.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said that standards will be prescribed but some time is needed to persuade the industries operating in the NCR to switch over to alternative fuels.
The bench said that the CPCB will start the exercise and by June it should come out with standards for emission.
Earlier, the apex court had said that the problem of air pollution was very serious and solutions needed to be found urgently, rather than in years.
The Centre had said that consultations among all stakeholders was being done regarding banning of petcoke and furnace oil as industrial fuel in Delhi-NCR.
It had said that reports have been sought from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), National Physical Laboratory, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) and industrial houses with regard to banning of such fuels.
The apex court had on December 2 last year accorded its nod to the Graded Responsibility Action Plan (GRAP) to tackle different levels of pollution. It had also asked the CPCB to upgrade its existing infrastructure and set up additional monitoring stations in Delhi-NCR within six months.
The GRAP, aimed at reducing air pollution, has enumerated a number of measures which include closing brick kilns, hot mix plants, stone crushers, intensifying public transport services besides increase in frequency of mechanised cleaning of road and sprinkling of water on roads.
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