The Supreme Court-mandated EPCA today said the latest measures announced by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to clean the city's toxic air may "dilute" the Centre-notified Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) and create "confusion" among the implementing agencies.
Sunita Narain, a member of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority or the EPCA, said the GRAP, which it is authorised to enforce, was much more "stringent".
According to the categorisation of the NGT's action plan, measures such as ban on construction activities, diesel generator sets, thermal power plants and closure of schools will kick in when levels of PM2.5 and PM10 cross 600 and 1000 microgram per cubic metre (ug/m3) respectively.
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The green tribunal defines the aforementioned category as 'emergency'. It says odd-even road rationing scheme is to be rolled out when ultrafine particulates PM2.5 and PM10 range between 400-600 and 700-1000 ug/m3, a level defined as 'critical' by it.
In contrast, under the GRAP, which was notified by the Centre on January 12 this year, a pollution emergency is declared when PM2.5 crosses 300 ug/m3 and PM10 breaches 500 ug/m3, the level when steps such as odd-even and construction ban are to be implemented.
Apart from the Badarpur plant, the EPCA does not recommend closure of thermal power plants in the region. However, it suggests that steps be taken to ensure the gradual shift to gas-based power generation from coal-based plants.
"They (NGT) have diluted it. The GRAP is much more stringent. And the GRAP is notified, it is law. No one can afford to not implement it. This was unnecessary and will only lead to more confusion," Narain said.
Chances of 24-hour average of pollutants in Delhi crossing the emergency threshold fixed by the NGT are not very high at this point, which also means that tough actions will remain largely on abeyance.
For example, in November this year, when a pollution emergency was declared under the GRAP, the maximum average value of PM2.5 was 589 ug/m3.
There were individual stations where levels of PM2.5 and PM10 crossed the 600 and 1000 marks, especially on November 8, but the values come below these limits upon rounding up the average of all the stations across the city.
Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which works closely with the EPCA, also observed that the NGT plan was unclear.
"If you are changing the basic architecture, it is going to be confusing for the implementing agencies," she said.
The NGT has said that there was no uniformity and "unanimity" in action plans of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the EPCA and the air quality categorisation needs "clarity and certainty".
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