Supreme Court to Delhi govt: How are 13 pollution hotspots faring?

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Delhi government to file a report on whether pollution levels at 13 identified hotspots in the national capital had reduced in the last five months after the court directed the government to take specific measures to deal with the problem.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari asked Delhi chief secretary Vijay Kumar Dev, who appeared before the court through video-conferencing, to file an affidavit on action taken by the authorities to control pollution levels at those sites.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 13 hotspots —- Rohini, Dwarka, Okhla Phase II, Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Wazirpur, Jahangirpuri, RK Puram, Bawana, Narela, Mundka and Mayapuri — based on the high particulate matter (PM) concentration in these areas.
Dev informed the bench that pollution levels have been low in the last few months due to the lockdown and actions were being taken on different fronts, including by removing traffic bottlenecks in those areas. He informed the court that teams had been constituted to specifically deal with all the hotspots and efforts will be intensified in the coming days.
Referring to the pollution caused by construction work, the chief secretary said an order has been passed making it mandatory to use anti-smog guns at construction sites. He said anti-smog guns are operational at 20 places and the process is on for deploying them at 13 other places. He said the government also directed other developers to use the machine and passed the order that no construction would be allowed on 19 projects till anti-smog guns are deployed.
Briefing about the steps taken by the Punjab government to prevent stubble-burning in the state, its chief secretary informed the bench that it is facing financial crunch to provide subsidies to farmers to purchase equipment like mulcher, cutter-cum spreader.
"Financial position of the state is weak after Covid-19. We need financial support," chief secretary Vini Mahajan told the bench while seeking the court's direction to the Centre to grant funds.
The court said it will examine the plea and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to consider it.