The Supreme Court on Monday said that there has to be a downward trend in the Air Quality Index (AQI) level before it relaxes Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
Refusing to relax emergency measures under Stage 4, the court said it will hear all parties on December 5.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih also directed the Chief Secretaries of NCR states, including Delhi, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, to appear virtually before them on Thursday.
The court asked them to appear through video conferencing to inform it whether any compensation had been paid to construction workers who were without work owing to the restrictions.
Meanwhile, the court also proposed investigating all causes of air pollution in NCR and trying to find a permanent solution.The Supreme Court questioned how many officers had been deployed to implement restrictions, especially stopping trucks from entering the national capital, while remarking that there was hardly any implementation of Stage 4 of GRAP.
However, the Delhi government informed the court that it will look into allegations of non-compliance of GRAP restrictions.
“On the basis of 2–3 incidents, it can’t be said that the entire city of 1.5 crore population is not complying,” the Delhi government said.
Meanwhile, although Delhi’s air quality remained in the ‘poor’ category, it showed a slight improvement on Monday. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI on Sunday stood at 285, an improvement to the ‘poor’ category and a welcome relief following 32 consecutive days of ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ air quality (AQI over 400).
