The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday banned all construction activities in Delhi city for a week to check the alarming air pollution levels. It said stone crushers and brick kilns should not operate in the region during this period.
Not stopping at this, the green court asked the Delhi government what the basis was for its decision to close schools and why it was sprinkling water using cranes. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar took the secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to task for not implementing its orders against burning crops and to contain air pollution.
“What did you do when all this smog was building up and particulate matter had increased beyond prescribed limits? What steps did you take till yesterday,” the bench asked. “For the first five days, nobody did anything, be it the States or the Centre. Show us one thing visible to the common man.’’
‘Give free masks to children, senior citizens’
Lawyer Vardhman Kaushik on Tuesday said the Delhi government should, as a punitive measure, provide free masks to the school-going children and senior citizens since it has failed to implement the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on air pollution.
Mr. Kaushik told an NGT bench headed by chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that it should direct schools to ensure that children wear the masks to school.
The plea was filed through advocates Sanjay Upadhyay and Saliq Shafique. It also demanded that a penalty be imposed on the authorities for not complying with the orders of the tribunal to curb air pollution that was posing a grave danger to the lives of the citizens, specially the young.
