Keywords: odd even scheme, orange tagged cars, omnibus case, AQI
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the government’s odd-even plan to reduce air pollution in Delhi is “mere optics” with no real impact. In Delhi, the odd-even vehicle rationing scheme was initially introduced in 2016. Vehicles with license plates that finish in an even digit (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) are permitted to operate on even dates under the odd-even system; vehicles with license plates that end in an odd digit (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) are permitted to operate on odd dates
Have you evaluated its previous year’s performance? Such plans are merely optic, the Court said.
Judges Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia’s bench also noted that if the metro railway system hadn’t been established, the National Capital Region’s air pollution problem would have been worse.
Extreme weather conditions are a problem. Who knows what would have occurred in the absence of Metro. However, point-to-point connectivity remains a problem, according to Justice Kaul.The Court also demanded today that the Delhi government restrict the number of “orange-tagged” cars (polluting diesel cars) and taxis that are allowed into the nation’s capital from other States.
The Court was considering an application in an omnibus case involving multiple environmental issues, one of which concerned air pollution in the nation’s capital. The Supreme Court’s comments are in response to multiple reports of stubble burning incidents, which is one of the causes of the air pollution in the nation’s capital. The AAP claimed on Monday that the Haryana government was to blame for the pollution in Delhi, pointing out that Haryana is only 100 km away from the national capital, while Punjab is 500 km away.
The bench also said during the Tuesday hearing that farmers in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh should cease burning their stubble because it greatly worsens air pollution in the country’s northern regions, including Delhi.The act of farmers lighting straw stubble that remains in the fields following the harvest of grains like wheat and paddy is known as “stubbly burning.”The Court also pointed out that the Punjabi groundwater was being ruined by paddy, even as the government supported millet on the one hand.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) for the nation’s capital was 394 at 4 pm on Monday, a slight improvement over 421. Even with a slight decrease, the capital’s PM2.5 concentration—fine particulate matter that can pierce deeply into the respiratory system and cause health issues—was seven to eight times higher than the government-mandated safe threshold of 60 micrograms per cubic meter.The next hearing date is November 10.The Delhi-NCR Air Quality Early Warning System of the Ministry of Earth Sciences predicts that the area will likely endure poor air quality for an additional five to six days.
References:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.firstpost.com/india/schemes-like-odd-even-mere-optics-sc-to-kejriwal-government-as-delhi-chokes-on-polluted-air-13358992.html/amp Last visited:7/11/23
Anushka Shukla, Faculty of Law, University Of Lucknow, Intern At Legal Vidhiya
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