This year's air pollution in Delhi is the highest in 17 years.
The country's top pollution control board got pulled up by the Supreme Court today for not having any plan to remedy the gas chamber that Delhi has become for almost two weeks.
The top court told the pollution board CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) to come up with a plan to set up a centralised control room for monitoring the air quality index in the capital.
The board was also told that it should convene a meeting with all stake holders including experts and doctors on to how to meet the problem of pollution.
The meeting, the court said, should address issues that are creating various levels of pollution and air quality index. It should also look at how pollution can be brought down to permissible limits once they go up in particular areas.
The meeting, the court ordered, should be held on November 19 and the report be submitted on November 25.
The air quality as present should be graded as poor, satisfactory and serious, but there is no plan of action or graded response how to bring down the levels, the court said.
The court, which had taken suo motu note of the pollution blanket that had enveloped the capital, had earlier asked the Centre to come up with a disaster management plan. The Centre and the Delhi government had also been asked to devise a "common minimum programme" to counter the menace of pollution that affects the national capital every winter.
Experts have dubbed this year's pollution - the highest in 17 years - as a "public health emergency" and called for close monitoring to ensure "stringent" enforcement of earlier directions of the Supreme Court.
The top court told the pollution board CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) to come up with a plan to set up a centralised control room for monitoring the air quality index in the capital.
The board was also told that it should convene a meeting with all stake holders including experts and doctors on to how to meet the problem of pollution.
The meeting, the court said, should address issues that are creating various levels of pollution and air quality index. It should also look at how pollution can be brought down to permissible limits once they go up in particular areas.
The meeting, the court ordered, should be held on November 19 and the report be submitted on November 25.
The air quality as present should be graded as poor, satisfactory and serious, but there is no plan of action or graded response how to bring down the levels, the court said.
The court, which had taken suo motu note of the pollution blanket that had enveloped the capital, had earlier asked the Centre to come up with a disaster management plan. The Centre and the Delhi government had also been asked to devise a "common minimum programme" to counter the menace of pollution that affects the national capital every winter.
Experts have dubbed this year's pollution - the highest in 17 years - as a "public health emergency" and called for close monitoring to ensure "stringent" enforcement of earlier directions of the Supreme Court.
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