The union’s environment ministry published Thursday “The Ordinance of the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjacent Areas” for the control of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
The commission aims to implement a consolidated approach to monitoring, addressing and eliminating the causes of air pollution in Delhi-NCR by coordinating with state governments.
The commission will be a statutory authority replacing the Supreme Court-mandated Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), which has introduced several major interventions to control pollution. Among his most important interventions was the conversion of all public transport in Delhi to compressed natural gas (CNG) in 1998, gradually removing polluting fuels such as petroleum coke and furnace oil from industries and imposing a pollution charge on the old polluting trucks.
The commission will have the appropriate powers that can act against air pollution on the warpath and will coordinate with the NCR states and the central government. It will have the power to issue instructions to various statutory authorities established under various laws. The ordinance says that, based on court orders, various ad hoc committees such as the EPCA were formed to assist the courts in implementing their orders, but the new commission may subsume them.
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The ordinance says that due to the absence of an intersectoral, public participatory and multistate body, the CS has had to devote “its precious time to the constitution of various ad hoc and permanent committees at various stages,” and has been supervising and guiding the NCR air pollution problem through MC Mehta Vs Union of India case.
However, the new commission will function entirely under the aegis and supervision of the central government. It will have members from all NCR states and the Central Pollution Control Board; from associated ministries such as oil and natural gas, agriculture, commerce, etc. The commission will have powers to make decisions and act against sources of pollution under various environmental laws, such as the environmental protection law and the air law.
A senior official from the Environment Ministry confirmed that the ordinance will be presented to the Supreme Court today, but did not comment further on the creation of the commission.
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