Delhi HC orders for emergency meeting to curb killer fog

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the Union Environment Secretary to hold a meeting in the next three days with the chief secretaries of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This will be to work out a joint short-term plan to bring down air pollution.

Calling it an "emergency situation", a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked the government to consider the option of "cloud seeding" to induce rainfall artificially, as an immediate step to bring down the dust and particulate matter in the atmosphere.

The HC raises questions about the decision of increasing parking fees by four times to control pollution.

Further, the High Court asked the Delhi government to consider implementing "odd-even vehicle movement scheme" as a short-term measure.

Directions were also issued by the bench to the Delhi Traffic Police to ensure there is no vehicular congestion on the roads and provide masks to the personnel on duty.

Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal pulled up Delhi Government and civic authorities for failing to take measures to control air pollution in smog-covered Delhi.

OneIndia NewsThe NGT directed that industrial activities should not be carried on in Delhi till the next hearing and asked the government to depute an officer to monitor the polluting activities.

The tribunal further slammed neighbouring states of Delhi and raised the question on their seriousness on the grievous situation.

OneIndia News