Air pollution: NGT reserves order on suo moto matter; pulls of various states for not working effectively

New Delhi [India], November 10 : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday pulled up various states where the Air Quality Index (AQI) has dipped to "severe, very poor and poor categories" and said the action taken reports filed by them do not disclose what action has been taken for improvement of air quality.
"We expected some improvement after the first order but we don't find any," NGT said.
The Tribunal on last date, issued notice to Chief Secretaries of various states, including Delhi and directed to take immediate remedial action and submit the action taken report before the Tribunal, including Delhi.
During the hearing, the tribunal said that we expected some improvement after the first order but we don't find any. Most of the details in action taken report are only up to October, when the situation was not so bad. We thought that after issuing notice, there will be some improvement. Bhiwani, Bathinda, Bulandshahar, Churu--quality is bad.
Even after our order, the situation in Bihar is worrisome, as observed by NGT.
The bench headed by Justice Prakash Shrivastava asked the Punjab government, "Is there any improvement in any place?" "Point out one city where situation has improved?" No improvement in Amritsar.. Bathinda remains in poor category... We showed you satellite image last time, What is shown in report and shown in satellite image does not match, added the bench."
What will happen to residents of city in Punjab. Cities in Punjab are engulfed in smoke. It rained today and "GOD CAME TO YOUR RESCUE" because he (God) also realised that nothing is being done at your end, NGT said.
NGT also hauls Haryana govt and said, Maximum number of places in Haryana are affected by spike in pollution. Look at Fatehabad - it is severe and hasn't improved since Nov 3.
After going through the reply copies by various states, the Tribunal decided to kept the order reserved in the matter.
On last date of hearing, the Tribunal observed that immediate action was required. Serious conditions are reflected in various cities in the air quality bulletins. Hence, immediate action is required for the prevention and control of air pollution in these cities so as to ensure better air quality for the residents.
The bench headed by NGT's Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, also comprising Sudhir Agarwal and A Senthil Vel, on Friday took suo moto exercise of powers on the basis of the Air Quality Bulletins of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) posted on their website in respect of the Air Quality Index (AQI) for different cities from October 20, 2023, to November 1, 2023.
NGT noted that the said reports show that there are various cities where the air quality index has dipped to the "very poor" or even "severe" stage. For example, a perusal of the air quality index of November 1, 2023, discloses that in Hanumangarh, Fatehabad, and Hisar, the air quality has dipped to the "severe" level, in respect of Bahadurgarh, Biwani, Charkhi Dadri, Faridabad, Greater Noida, Kaithal, Noida, Rohtak and Sri Ganganagar apart from Delhi, the air quality was at "very poor" level and in respect of Amritsar, Ankleshwar, Baddi, Balllabgarh, Bathinda, Bharatpur, Bhiwadi, Bhopal, Bikaner, Bulandshahr, Bundi, Byrnihat, Churu, Dausa, Dhandbad, Dharuhera, Ghaziabad, Gurugram Gwalior, Jhansi, Jhunjhunu, Karnal, Khurja, Kota, Kurukshetra, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Manandi Gobindgarh, Manesar, Narnaul, Navi Mumbai, Panipat, Patna, Purnia, Rajgir, Sirsa, Sonipat, Thane, Tonk and Vapi , the air quality has dipped to "poor" level.
Noting the seriousness of the issue, NGT has implead the Chief Secretaries of the concerned States, Chairman, Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), Member Secretary, CPCB, and National Task Force through its head secretary, MoEF&CC, as parties in the case and sought their responses and directed them to take remedial action and submit an action taken report reflecting compliance of directions issued by the Tribunal from time to time in this regard.