The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a fresh “comprehensive report” from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on the air pollution in Delhi-NCR. It stated that there should not be any dependency on another agency given the vast powers it holds.
NGT had taken suo-moto cognizance of a matter pertaining to a newspaper report regarding the worsening air quality in Delhi and NCR.
The commission filed a report dated January 2 in tabulated form, listing the action points for controlling air pollution, its targeted time-line, and the nodal implementing agency, the bench, also comprising judicial members Justices Sudhir Agarwal and Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Afroz Ahmad, in an order passed last week.
A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava noted that earlier, the tribunal had directed the CAQM to revise its action report in terms of “a specific plan covering all the districts (of Delhi-NCR), with quantified targets.”
The submissions of the commission’s counsel regarding different implementing agencies like the Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana governments, along with their departments and police forces, were taken into notice by the bench. These were responsible for implementing the plan to curb air pollution.
It said the CAQM’s report revealed that it “shifted the responsibility to different agencies without having due regard to the powers that have been conferred upon the commission.” The bench noted that the CAQM was formed under the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act in 2021.
The green panel expressed dissatisfaction over the argument about the responsibility of other agencies and said that the commission has “very wide powers and is not solely dependent upon the different agencies for taking action to achieve the object of the Act”.
The tribunal then asked the CAQM to submit a report disclosing the exercise of its power to date. “Let a comprehensive report, keeping in view the above observations, be filed within four weeks,” it said. Further proceedings on the matter have been listed for January 23, 2024.