In a stern message to the Punjab government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it must stop the fire. Apart from Punjab, the top court has also directed other neighbouring states of Delhi to stop the burning of stubble immediately. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab have been told to stop the farm fires. While hearing the air pollution matter, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that Delhi cannot be made to go through this every year. The apex court asked for solution to help Delhi in easing the air emergency. The top court said that crop burning is a major contributor to pollution. Saying that it has zero patience over the issue, the Supreme Court told the Centre to help the states so that they can shift to an alternative crop.
Apart from directing the states to stop farm fires with immediate effect, the top court also said that the local cops will be responsible to stop farm fires. The court also said that the Chief Secretaries of the states will be culpable for farm fires. In a scathing remark, the Supreme Court also said that the farmers found burning crops should be penalised for breaching the law.
Meanwhile on Tuesday morning, pollution levels in Delhi saw a slight decrease, moving from the “severe” air quality category to the “very poor” category after a continuous stretch of five days with severe air quality. The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was measured at 394, showing a marginal improvement compared to the 421 AQI recorded at 4 pm on the previous Monday.
Despite this marginal improvement, the concentration of PM2.5, which is fine particulate matter capable of deeply infiltrating the respiratory system and causing health issues, remained significantly higher than the government-prescribed safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic meter in the city. In fact, it exceeded this limit by seven to eight times. Furthermore, these levels were 30 to 40 times higher than the healthier limit of 15 micrograms per cubic meter recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Additionally, several cities in the neighboring states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have also reported dangerous levels of air pollution.