Delhi air pollution resumes, national capital enters red zone

In spite of the Supreme Court's decision to ban the sale of fire crackers in the National Capital during the festival of diwali, the air quality in Delhi has already entered the red zone as told by Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) chairperson Bhure Lal and member Sunita Narain in a press conference on October 18.

Experts also said that Delhi could witness a deterioration in the air quality in the coming days, which may trigger an increase in parking fees by up to four times across the city in the next few days.

It was also pointed out at the Press conference that if needed, the measure will be enforced under the Graded Response Action Plan, under which a series of measures will be taken based on the severity of air pollution across the winter season. Measures falling under the category of 'very poor' and 'severe' categories of the plan came into force today, due to which the Badarpur thermal power plant has been closed and Diesel Generators sets have been banned in Delhi among other actions.

Narain said that there might be a need to hike fee in Delhi, despite the fact that a parking policy is still being worked out, and "cars will have to be off the roads," if air pollution aggravates further and in case it touches alarming proportions.

The Supreme Court on in a massive move to control pollution, on October 9, banned the sale of fire crackers in Delhi and NCR until November 1. However, the ban is only on the sale, and those who have already purchased fire crackers can still burst them.

The Apex Court in its judgment observed, "We are of the view that the order suspending the licences should be given one chance to test itself in order to find out as to whether there would be positive effect of this suspension, particularly during Diwali period. Insofar as adverse effects of burning of crackers during Diwali are concerned, those have been witnessed year after year. The air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes thereby. It leads to closing the schools and the authorities are compelled to take various measures on emergent basis, when faced with "health emergency" situation.

This very situation had occurred on the very next morning after Diwali in the year 2016. It resulted in passing the order dated November 11, 2016. This order prevailed during the year but the impact and effect of this order remains to be tested on Diwali days.

Going by these considerations, we are of the opinion that the judgment dated September 12, 2017 passed by this Court should be made effective only from November 01, 2017. To put it clearly, though we are not tweaking with the various directions contained in the Orders dated September 12, 2017, the effect of that Order would not be given during this Diwali and, therefore, we are making it effective only from November 01, 2017. We are conscious of the fact that after the said order was passed, the police may have issued temporary licences. Accordingly, those are suspended forthwith so that there is no 20 further sale of the crackers in Delhi and NCR. Further orders in this behalf can be passed on assessing the situation that would emerge after this Diwali season. "

Delhi had also faced a severe air pollution crisis last year in 2016 and the Supreme Court's decision also came keeping in view last year's crisis.

OneIndia News