Thread by @barandbench

Air Pollution in Delhi: Special Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta assembles

Attorney General KK Venugopal present in the Court, suggest solution to tackle the issue. Venugopal speaks about Stubble burning, suggests Punjab and Haryana may be divided into zones and each zone be allowed to burn stubble on specific days allotted

Justice Mishra: Why just stubble burning be allowed?

Venugopal: Farmers cannot be asked to compromise on their livelihood. If stubble burning is banned, farmers will eb affected.

Justice Mishra: Why is the government not giving any othe solution? Stubble burning is bad. The Attorney in a democratic country cannot give suggestion like this. Why can't centre or State come up with a solution

Justice Mishra: You give subsidies to farmers, give some solution but can people be asked to for like this? Can you give fait accompli like this? Why can't a solution and machinery be provided by the government?

Justice Mishra: We cannot leave it with the farmers. We will make authorities responsible for collection (of stubble). But lives of crores of people is affected by this stubble burning

Venugopal: My solution is workable and practical.

Mishra J: We are rejecting your solution

Venugopal: You cannot control 200 thousand farmers.

SG Tushar Mehta: GOI giving subsidies in Haryana for machines. There are two ways to deal with stubble.

Mehta: The machines that work to convert stubble into in-situ manure are provided bythe government at subsidised rate.

Justice Mishra: Governments need to be hauled up under law of torts. Why government is not buying stubble? Only poor farmer should be penalised while government is not made accountable? It cannot be like this

Justice Mishra: We cannot be protecting these officials anymore

Justice Mishra: Everyone knew that this (stubble burning) would happen this year also, why was the government not ready in advance and why were these machines not provided in advance? What have you done in one year? No steps are taken throughout the year.

Chief secretary, Punjab informs the Court of the steps taken by officials to educate and motivate farmers to adopt other methods instead of stubble burning

CS Punjab tells the Court that over 18000 machines were distributed.

Justice Mishra: why did you wait till September for this distribution? You started late that is why all machines could not be distributed

Justice Mishra: What steps did you take to purchase the stubble?

CS Punjab mentions Centre's responsibility in purchasing of stubble.

Justice Mishra: Again you are passing the buck, why are you Chief Secretary if you cannot do anything? We will suspend you from here only, you won't be able to work even for a single day. What is this

Justice Mishra: why have a state administration if you don't want to do anything. Why can't collection or purchase of stubble be done at panchayat level

Justice Mishra: people are dying, flights are being diverted, are you proud of your achievement? You must have advised AG to speak like this to say that "there is no solution other than stubble burning". You have failed to make a roadmap for this problem.

Justice Mishra: you don't hage any policy for purchasing stubble. Time has come to take action against you people (state government authorities)

Justice Mishra to chief secretaries of Punjab and Haryana

1. Make plan of purchasing this stubble
2. Make sure no burning takes place
3. Make your entire administration responsible

Justice Mishra: We have forgotten the concept of welfare State. We are not able to provide them with the modern facilities to deal with this.

Justice Mishra: What will you do in the next seven days regarding
purchasing the stubble.

You are also a State government, don't depend on the centre for everything..it is not for the Courts to run the government

CS Punjab: We have an action plan. There have been some reactions from some elements.

Justice Mishra: You cannot penalise farmers without providing them amenities. There will be law and order problem.

Justice Mishra: You are not providing them basic facilities nand then you want to punish the farmers. You cannot sit in your ivory tower and try to rule like this

Justice Mishra: First thing you need to answer is when will you purchase the required machinery

Justice Mishra (to CS Punjab): If you don't have the funds, tell us we will provide for the fund. Don't think about the funds right now

CS Punjab gives the Court an outline of the funds that will be required to incentivise farmers not to burn the stubble.

Justice Mishra: You cannot arrange for the fund?

CS Punjab: We are a highly indebted State

Justice Mishra: You are the administrative head of a State. You should say that you are willing to take action. If you cannot provide the funds, you should vacate the chair. This shows lack of will power

Justice Mishra (To Punjab): You are not bankrupt. You are running a government but don't have money for poor farmers? If you are not diverting funds, don't think Courts are powerless

Court calls up the Chief Secretary of Haryana now

Justice Mishra: We want to know why burning is taking place

CS Haryana: Farmers have the machinery but the procedure cost ₹2000 and burning is free. We are sensitising the farmers

Justice Mishra: That means you have also failed. You want the lecture tobe repeated for you also?

CS Haryana: Meetings of gram sabhas have been held. Sensitising process is taking place.

Justice Mishra: sensitising is happening now? You are worse than Punjab..they sensitised starting January, you are doing it now

Justice Mishra: now time has gone to make them aware. You have to take positive steps to purchase this stubble

Justice Mishra: In the coming seven days, you take all steps to procure the stubble. Mobilise the entire machinery, spend as much money as required but purchase the stubble. Precious time is being lost as regards preparing the field for the next crop

Bench calls up the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh

Justice Mishra: Why must there be stubble burning in western UP and what are you doing about it?

Court to hear chief secretary for Delhi now

Justice Mishra: You cannot deal with road dust, not with construction demolition, not with garbage dumping. Why are you in the chair?

Justice Mishra: This is the capital city of India. It cannot be ignored like this

Justice Mishra to AG: Our primary idea is to protect the farmer

AG: I thought I have come up with a workable idea but Your Lordships shot it down in no time.

SG Tushar Mehta: An element of deterrent should also be there. With any amount of incentivising, the deterring factor for farmers should not go

Venugopal: Not only is this (pollution) harmful for us but is also creating a very bad impression abroad.

Justice Mishra: Attorney you were right when you said (during SC/ST hearing) that the Law of Torts needs to be developed in India. It haunts me everyday.

Venugopal: children are falling in sewers and dying and nobody is held responsible

Supreme Court passes directions to tackle the issue of stubble burning.

States of UP, Punjab, and Haryana to provide financial assistance to the tune of Rs 100 per quintal to small and marginal farmers growing non basmati variety of rice to deal with the stubble

These states to hire machinery to process the Stubble and the cost to be borne by the States.

State to provide tools and machines to small and marginal farmers free of cost.

Centre to prepare a roadmap within three months for protecting the interests of farmers. The scheme will be made applicable across the country.

Delhi to submit an action plan within three weeks on the issue of tackling issues of garbage dumping, road dust and such

[Breaking] Air Pollution: Supreme Court passes directions to curb Stubble Burning
#AirPollution #DelhiNCRPollution
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