Commuters make their way along a street amid smoggy conditions in New Delhi on Monday. (AFP)
The Supreme Court on Monday lamented that it was being “forced to set the agenda” on the pollution crisis in the National Capital Region (NCR) as it pulled up the Delhi government for “passing the buck”, the Centre for not proposing “drastic measures”, and NCR states for not doing enough to control what has become an annual public health crisis.
In a hearing on Monday, a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, gave the Centre and state governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh 24 hours to hold an emergency meeting and prepare a list of urgent steps that can be put in place immediately to bring down the levels of pollution in the “forseeable future”.
