Amritsar: A farmer burns straw and stubble in a pady field on the outskirts of Amritsar.
Credit: PTI Photo
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed reservations over whether stubble burning by farmers could be the sole reason for the ongoing Delhi air pollution crisis.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi proceeded to seek a report on measures taken to contain other pollutants.
CJI Kant pointed out that it is 'easy to blame farmers who engage in stubble burning when they are not represented before the Court or in a position to defend themselves'.
"We don't want to comment on stubble burning as it's easy to pass off burden on those who are hardly represented before us," he said.
Stubble burning had taken place earlier also, but had not resulted the drastic dip in air quality that Delhi has been witnessing as of late, the CJI said.
The Supreme Court also said that the air pollution issue in the Delhi-NCR cannot be treated as a "customary" case to be listed only during the winter months, noting that it will be taken twice in a month to find out short and long-term solutions to the menace.
The CJI said, "The Delhi pollution matter cannot be listed customarily in the month of October and rather it should be taken up regularly at least twice a month."
The CJI also referred to unplanned urban growth and rising aspirational population in the country.
He said, "None of the cities of the country were developed to accommodate this scale of population or with the thought that each home will have multiple cars. Let us see which measures are suggested to us and how these measures are implemented or are only on paper."
The development of cities should not have a negative impact on the quality of life, the CJI said.
The bench mentioned that there should be a scientific analysis to ascertain the factor which is contributing the most to the problem.
The CJI observed that while metro projects would eventually be a game changer, short-term measures were urgently needed.
(With PTI inputs)