Delhi-NCR air monitor gets 2 expert members
On October 16, the SC had pulled up the Punjab and Haryana governments over non-prosecution of violators found guilty of stubble burning and summoned the state chief secretaries to appear before it on Wednesday for an explanation.
The Environment Ministry has appointed three members — two experts from non-governmental organisations and one stakeholder from the Agriculture sector — to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the air monitor told the Supreme Court Tuesday.
In an affidavit submitted to the top court, the CAQM also listed monitoring and enforcement actions taken by the Punjab and Haryana governments to control farm fires. This included lodging 920 FIRs; marking red entries in the records of 437 farmers; and imposing fines of Rs 11 lakh on offenders in Punjab from September 15 to October 20. During the same period in Haryana, 653 farm fire incidents were reported, out of which fines were imposed in 327 cases amounting to around Rs 8 lakh, 93 FIRs were lodged, and red entries were made in revenue records of 379 farmers.
On October 16, the SC had pulled up the Punjab and Haryana governments over non-prosecution of violators found guilty of stubble burning and summoned the state chief secretaries to appear before it on Wednesday for an explanation.
The air quality monitoring body is tasked with better coordination, research, identification, and resolution of problems surrounding the air quality index and related matters in NCR and adjoining areas. According to the CAQM Act, 2021, there needs to be three members from NGOs having experience in combating air pollution and the Commission should also have a stakeholder member from the Agriculture sector.
Due to non-fulfillment of this criteria, on October 3, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka stated, “If there are no true experts in the field of air pollution, this Court will have to exercise powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to include some experts in the field. Two posts of NGO members are still kept vacant.”
The members were appointed to the Commission through an office order by the Environment Ministry issued Saturday. The NGO members are Arvind Wable, president of the Board of Trustees at the World Wide Fund for Nature India, and Dr Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water. The stakeholder member from the Agriculture sector is Dr P K Sahoo, head and principal scientist in the Agriculture Engineering Division at the ICAR-Indian Agriculture Research Institute.
Meanwhile, the Commission in its submission stated that three sub-committee meetings were held on October 8, 14 and 17 respectively on stubble burning. On account of non-compliance with the CAQM’s direction in the complete elimination of stubble burning, notices have been issued to 212 nodal or supervisory officers in Punjab and 372 nodal or supervisory officers in Haryana, said the body.
“The Commission noted that effective implementation and enforcement of the action plan to eliminate paddy stubble burning has not been forthcoming and paddy stubble burning events still being recorded are indicative of non-compliance of the direction(s) issued by the Commission to states to implement their own action plans…,” stated the CAQM.