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New Delhi: Justice Arun Mishra, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India, expressed serious concern over the slow progress in achieving zero stubble burning to reduce air pollution and said it was time to identify the accountability of officials from top to bottom.
He chaired a follow-up hearing of the full committee on Delhi’s air pollution through video conferencing, which the committee had taken on its own initiative last year based on media reports, and followed up on the progress with the chief secretaries and other senior officials of the Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh governments.
He said we have to deal with the situation as millions of people are choking on air pollution and we cannot let this continue forever. The blame for stubble burning cannot be placed solely on poor farmers, some of whom do not have the financial resources to buy or hire machines to remove the stubble in the short period between harvesting one crop and sowing the next. Besides providing subsidies to farmers, states should also make arrangements to reserve subsidies for those who cannot afford expensive equipment. Subsidizing machines is not a solution for everyone.
Similarly, the committee said that managing crop waste on the spot is also time-consuming and farmers may not be able to postpone sowing of the next crop. The committee has asked Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to submit daily status reports on the machines provided to farmers to meet the machine procurement target in the next 15 days. They are also required to submit status reports on the machines to be reserved in each district for farmers who cannot afford them.
The committee also said that crop rotation or switching from other rice varieties to basmati rice could reduce the causes of contamination but might not solve the problem completely. Governments must share responsibility.
Besides hearing about the progress of measures to reduce air pollution in Delhi, the committee has also been seeking progress reports from all state and union territories governments on the action taken to implement its recommendations. Today, besides Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, the committee also heard reports from Karnataka, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep.
The committee asked the state governments to submit a roadmap within 15 days to ensure that manual intervention in cleaning hazardous septic tanks and drains is stopped to fulfill the statutory obligation. The committee said the officials may be criminally prosecuted for dereliction of duty. The committee also suggested that they use funds from the central government’s “SafaiMitra Suraksha Challenge” (SSC) campaign.
During the video conference hearing with representatives of the Delhi NCR government, the committee said that since the nationwide ‘Clean India’ campaign has been launched from October 1, 2023, the committee wants to conduct a joint inspection with the relevant officials of the Delhi NCR government, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Railways on October 3, 2023 to get a clear picture of the actual situation on the stretch, i.e. whether garbage, plastic and waste have been cleared from the Azadpur to Narela railway section.
Regarding the upgradation of ‘Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs)’, the committee also wanted a joint inspection of Narela, Bawana and the remaining hotspots of Delhi NCR. The Chief Secretary, Government of Delhi NCR, was directed to comply with the above instructions of the committee, nominate a responsible officer to carry out the exercise and report back to the committee by tomorrow i.e. September 30, 2023.
A notice will also be issued to the Railways Chairman to depute a responsible officer by tomorrow to conduct a joint inspection of the stretch between Azadpur and Narela. A liaison officer from the office of the principal secretary, environment and forest department, NCR, Delhi will also coordinate with the joint inspection team.
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