Rs 1 lakh fine on garbage burning, construction activities; Rs 5000 for dumping trash: SC

New Delhi, Nov 04: As the apocalyptic haze has choked Delhi the Supreme Court on Monday slammed authorities for their failure to curb pollution, and said that they have left people to die.

The apex court has ordered that its directions be widely publicized, and a fine of Rs 1 lakh be imposed on persons found violating the ban on construction and demolition activities, garbage burning, and a fine of Rs 5,000 has been imposed on dumping trash in Delhi-NCR.

SC has ordered Delhi Government to produce by Friday, data or records to prove that the Odd-Even scheme has reduced pollution in Delhi, even as autos/taxis continue to ply the roads.

Besides this, it has also directed that no power cuts should take place in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to ensure that no diesel generators are used.

High powered committee of states to meet today and the report to be submitted on November 6.

Looking into the matter seriously, the apex court said, "Delhi is choking every year and we are not able to do anything. Every year this is happening and this continues for 10-15 days, this is not done in civilized countries. Right to life is most important".

The top court called the pollution in Delhi-NCR as atrocious and said no one is safe even inside homes.

The court said it will not tolerate this and will fix liability on the state governments."State governments are responsible. All of them...they are interested only in electioneering. State governments are making mockery of everything. We are going to hold them responsible now..from top to the bottom."

The apex court questioned the authorities saying, "Can we survive in this atmosphere? This is not the way we can survive."

"It is not the way we can live. "Centre should do.. state should do" can't go on. This is too much. No room is safe to live in this city, even in homes. We are losing precious years of our lives due to this," SC said.

"Situation is grim, what do you intend to do as Centre and as Delhi? What do you intend to do to reduce this pollution?"

"Stubble Burning Must Stop Immediately", "People are dying..more people will die but those at the helm seem interested only in gimmicks. We will supervise this matter now. Crop stubble burning must stop immediately and all states must do everything to stop it," Supreme Court said.

The next hearing in the Delhi air pollution matter has been slated for November 6, Wednesday by the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the SC as an amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, said the bench that as per the Centre's affidavit, crop burning has gone up by 7 per cent in Punjab and down by 17 per cent in Haryana.

Earlier, the opposition party BJP and the Congress have blamed the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi for the air pollution crisis, with an eye on the Assembly polls due early next year.

Delhi is witnessing one of the worst episodes of pollution this year. The share of stubble burning in Delhi's pollution stood at 46 per cent on Friday, the highest so far. It dropped to 17 per cent on Saturday and is expected to be 12 per cent on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor SAFAR.

Pollution level in Delhi peaked to a three-year high on Sunday. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city at 7:30 am stood at 439, which falls in the "severe" category. An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe'.