NGT Orders Action Plan Review as Delhi's Air Quality Index Hits 'Very Poor' Levels

The National Green Tribunal has sought responses from the Delhi police chief and the special commissioner of traffic management about measures taken to mitigate air pollution due to vehicular movement and parking issues. 

It also observed that a transparent process should be followed to invoke different stages of anti-pollution measure Graded Response Action Plan (GPAP).  

The green body was hearing the issue of deteriorating air quality in the National Capital Region (NCR), necessitating the invoking various stages of GRAP.   

In an order dated October 24, a bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said, "Now, the winter has started, and we find that the Air Quality Index (AQI) on October 23 in Delhi was 364 in the very poor category which reflects that there is a lapse on the part of the authorities in preventing the dip in the air quality in NCR."   

The bench, also comprising judicial-member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member A Senthil Vel, noted a report by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) dated October 23 about the GRAP schedule being "comprehensively reviewed" and that Stage I of GRAP was invoked when the average AQI of the national capital was higher than 200 for a "sufficiently long duration." 

Expressing its dissatisfaction, the tribunal said, "It is not disclosed as to the average of how many days are taken to invoke stage I and it is also not disclosed what duration is treated to be sufficiently long."  

"We feel that the objective criteria need to be applied, and a transparent process needs to be adopted for invoking the different stages of GRAP," it added. 

The NGT noted that vehicular pollution was among the major contributory factors for air pollution and the responsibility of controlling the traffic, parking issues, enforcing the ban on unauthorised and old vehicles was of the police. 

The tribunal then impleaded the police commissioner and the special commissioner of traffic management as parties or respondents. 

"Let notices be issued to the newly added respondents for filing the response by way of affidavit disclosing the steps which have been taken at the ground level to mitigate the contributory air polluting factors relating to vehicular movements and parking," the tribunal said. 

It directed that the field staff and teams deployed by the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to check violations had to be strengthened and monitored by competent officers to ensure they worked effectively at the ground level. 

The tribunal asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi government and MCD to widely publicise their mobile phone applications to check pollution. 

"The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has also filed the reply affidavit, which discloses the existing ambient air quality monitoring stations in NCR and proposed stations. So far as Delhi is concerned, there is no proposed ambient air quality monitoring station," it said.   

The tribunal also directed the CAQM to disclose the steps taken from January to September 2024 to ensure that the air quality does not dip in the winter months. 

The matter has been posted for further proceedings on November 5.