SC asks Punjab to speed up collecting fines levied for stubble burning

Delhi pollution SC issues more directions

The Supreme Court on December 13 asked Punjab to speed up the collection of fines it had slapped on those indulging in farm fires.

Noting that only 53 percent of the fines were collected by the government so far, the court mentioned that the collection of the penalty is significant.

During the course of the hearing, the court was informed of the steps suggested by the panel led by the cabinet secretary to reduce pollution in the coming years. The apex court directed Delhi and the adjoining states to comply with the suggestions of the panel and file an affidavit of compliance in two months.

The court also directed the Committee of Air Quality Management (CAQM) to look into waste management and ensure that pollution does not aggravate next winter. The case will come up for hearing on February 27.

The court said that cases such as this would require a regular hearing as opposed to scatterred hearings when the issue of air pollution in Delhi crops up. It suggested that this case be listed every two months going forward.

On November 21,  the court had noted that while the Punjab government imposed a fine of Rs 2.65 crore on farmers burning paddy stubble, it had only managed to collect Rs 18 lakh and directed the government to recover the rest of the amount by the next date of hearing.

On November 7, the top court came down heavily on Punjab for not being able to curtail crop burning. The court passed a series of direction to Delhi and adjacent states to reduce air pollution, which included operationalising the smog tower in the capital, directions to stop crop burning, among others.

The Supreme Court directed Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana to stop crop burning immediately to check the threatening level of air pollution in the Capital. The responsibility of preventing crop burning will be on the local station house officer, chief secretaries, and the directors general of police of these states.

The orders were passed in the 1985 MC Mehta case. The top court had passed many orders barring the government and other stakeholders from certain activities, in the interests of preserving the environment. The apex court had been monitoring for close to four decades to ensure that its directions were complied with.

The government and other stakeholders kept filing applications in these cases asking for the court’s permission to carry out certain restricted activities. Owing to the court monitoring it for 38 years now, the case covers a wide range of environment-related issues.