SC to consider EPCA report on air pollution on Monday

The Supreme Court will on Monday consider a report by Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority on related to air pollution.

A Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra will also hear issue relating to pollution caused by stubble-burning in the neighbouring states.

In its report before the Supreme Court, EPCA has sought directions to neighbouring states to take steps to stop burning of waste, toxic emissions from industries and dust from construction sites.

After the pollution level in Delhi reached "severe-plus" category, the EPCA on Friday has declared a public health emergency in the Delhi-national capital region (NCR) and banned construction activity till November 5.

Supreme Court-appointed EPCA has sought directions to neighbouring states to take steps to stop burning of waste, toxic emissions from industries and dust from construction sites.

"Direct Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to ensure that no waste is burnt in their regions/and that they find methods to remove the piled-up waste in hot spots and to process/incinerate it," report of EPCA stated.

The authority said the biggest problem is massive quantities of plastic, rubber and other industrial wastes which are found dumped in vacant areas and then being burnt in the open, leading to pollution.

The report stated that industries emitting visible black smoke from the chimney is another source of pollution in the region.

Though Delhi has been able to improve annual air pollution load on the city from 2010 till now, the city still needs to reduce pollution levels by 65 per cent to meet the national air quality standards, stated the "special report on pollution hotspots" of EPCA.

In the NCR, the EPCA has identified pollution hotspots -- Okhla Phase 2, Dwarka, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Narela, Mundka, Punjabi Bagh, Wazirpur, Rohini, Vivek Vihar, Anand Vihar (including Mandoli), R K Puram, Jahangir Puri, Mayapuri (Delhi), Faridabad 1 and 2, Bahadurgarh and Gurgaon (Haryana), Sahibabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Bhiwadi (Rajasthan).

It becomes highly critical to act on these pollution hot spots to control local polluting sources to ensure healthier air in the region, EPCA said, adding that these hot spots have been identified by it based on analysis of data from all the air quality monitoring station in the region and verified by site visits by Chairman EPCA, Bhure Lal.