NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to initiate prosecution of government officials who have not acted on complaints received with regard to pollution in Delhi.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that officials who have failed to act on the complaints were required to be prosecuted and said, “Why do not you prosecute these officials? You should prosecute them. Let these people realise what they have done.”
Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, who was appearing for the CPCB, said that from November 1 to November 22 this year, they had received 749 complaints regarding air pollution on their social media accounts, and action was taken on around 500 complaints.
“Of 749 complaints received on social media and e-mails till November 22, 2018, about 500 complaints were attended by 52 teams of CPCB while associating with clean air campaign during November 1-10, 2018,” CPCB informed the bench, adding that the remaining complaints had been assigned to the respective nodal agencies and were in the process of being resolved.
According to the CPCB, the highest number of air pollution complaints in Delhi-NCR pertained to construction and demolition work, followed by burning of waste and road dust.
Unpaved roads, traffic congestion and industrial emissions constitute other sources of pollution. It said that while incidents of waste burning were highest in the eastern part of the city, in the trans-Yamuna area, incidents of industrial emission and illegal industrial activities were prominent in north-west areas, followed by the north-eastern part of Delhi. The board further stated that garbage dumping incidents were high in the eastern part of Delhi.
The court is seized of matters in which several issues related to air pollution in Delhi-NCR have been raised.