NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday, December 16, 2021, expressed satisfaction over the anti-pollution measures in NCR taken by the Centre and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana asked the commission to invite suggestions from the public and experts on further steps.
The court scheduled the hearing for the first week of February next year after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “We’ve a committee for a long-term solution with National Environmental Engineering Research Institute experts on board to find a solution so that knee-jerk reaction for every year is not needed.”
Earlier, Mehta informed the court that the commission had lifted the ban on medical, paddy, dairy and textile industries in view of improvement in air quality. However, the ban on construction activities would continue and schools would continue to function in virtual mode for the time being.
He said, “All hospital constructions are permitted and there is continuous inspection by 40 flying squads.” He said milk and dairy processing units were permitted to resume 24x7 operations. Similarly, medicines and drugs industries can resume full-time operations while paper and pulp processing, paddy, textile and garment industries can operate five days a week.
The industries closed due to failure to switch over to PNG can now operate eight hours a day and the resumption of the use of diesel generator sets was allowed in 44 residential and commercial spaces. Power plants have been allowed to operate keeping in view the demand for power. This was after the Ministry of Power said that the existing plants couldn’t remain shut anymore and even the six plants located within the 300 km radius of Delhi couldn’t remain shut beyond December 15.
