The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on Punjab and Haryana over stubble burning and consequent air pollution and said if these governments were interested in protecting the environment, there would have been at least one prosecution.
The top court bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka and Augustin George Masih said, “If these governments were interested in implementing the law there would have been at least one prosecution.”
The court told the Chief Secretary of Punjab that around 1,080 violators were booked, but a nominal fine was collected from only 473 people. “You are sparing 600 or more people. We will tell you very frankly that you are giving a signal to violators that nothing will be done against them. This has been for the past three years,” the court said.
“We are concerned about cherry picking of FIR registration on some and a nominal amount of fine imposition on some,” the court told the Haryana government.
The Supreme Court also rapped the Centre for not formulating strict rules to tackle the issue of stubble burning across North India and said the Environment Protection Act had become “toothless”.
The court said, “The Centre has not created any machinery and the Environment Protection Act has become toothless.”
The top court has asked the Centre to notify new rules on punitive action against those engaging in stubble burning within 10 days.
SC Rebukes CAQM
The Supreme Court rapped the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and said, “Your orders were being defied for three years and you’re only issuing show cause notices?”
The court asked the air quality panel head not to be lenient on defiant officials and said, “if the state governments and the panel wanted to safeguard the environment, things would have been done differently. This is all political.”
The court also rebuked the Punjab Chief Secretary for instructing lawyers to submit false statements.
Last week, the top court rebuked the Haryana and Punjab governments for not taking action against farmers engaging in stubble burning which was deteriorating the air quality across North India, including Delhi. The Supreme Court had summoned the Haryana and Punjab chief secretaries to appear before it on October 23 and submit an explanation.
AIR QUALITY PANEL SUBMITS AFFIDAVIT
The CAQM has submitted a fresh affidavit before the Supreme Court stating that Punjab and Haryana logged over 1,800 cases of stubble burning this year despite strict rules. The air quality management panel, however, noted that the absenteeism of officials at the committee meetings had decreased.
The CAQM stated, “Despite strict directions, 1,289 cases of stubble burning were logged in Punjab and 601 in Haryana. However, absenteeism of officials in meetings has decreased.”
“The panel is engaging with technical, scientific, and agricultural experts to enhance its ability to combat pollution,” it mentioned.
WHAT SC SAID IN ITS LAST HEARING
In the last SC hearing on the matter, the bench had directed the CAQM to take penal action against Haryana and Punjab government officials for failure to take action against the violators. The bench also asked why Haryana nominees to the CAQM did not attend meetings.
Justice Abhay S Oka said, “We see that the affidavit by Haryana is full of non-compliance. We direct the Commission to take penal action against state officers.”
The top court said CAQM has become a toothless tiger and asked Haryana and Punjab to change their state representatives.
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