New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) Taking note of news reports thatfarmers in Punjab were threatening to burn crop residue iftheir demands were not met, the Delhi High Court today askedthe state government what preventive steps it had taken.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sunil Gaurdirected the Punjab government to file an affidavit beforeOctober 16 regarding the steps taken by it.
The court had on September 22 issued a slew of directionsto the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthanto stop stubble burning, saying "we cannot have another gaschamber situation".
The court's directions had come while hearing a PILinitiated by it in 2015 and another petition filed by aprivate person on the issue of poor air quality in thenational capital.
The order on burning of crop residue was passed by thecourt as this practice starts from the month of October andcontinues up to January, during which the air quality of thesestates and especially of Delhi deteriorates.
Today an application was moved in the matter by a lawyerwho has claimed that stubble burning was not the sole reasonfor the poor air quality in Delhi during the winter months.
He said that vehicles in the national capital number morethan that of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai taken together andcontended that they emit more pollutants than stubble burning.
The lawyer, Hargyan Singh Gahlot, has claimed in hisapplication that low winds and temperature inversion duringwinters were also responsible for the poor air qualityin Delhi.
He has claimed that a suitable alternative to stubbleburning would be composting of the crop residue.
The other reasons he has cited for poor air quality inthe city are non-shifting of industrial units out ofresidential areas and alleged lack of eco-friendly publictransport systems. PTI HMP PPS SKVRT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.