Enough laws in place, implementation a challenge: Experts on air pollution

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said that even though India has multiple bodies constituted to curb air pollution, the on-ground implementation still remains a challenge.

New Delhi: While the President has given a nod to the Centre's Ordinance for the establishment of the Commission for Air Quality Management in Delhi-NCR, environmental experts are still questioning the implementation of the new laws on ground, opining that there are already enough provisions and authorities set up for air pollution.

As per the new law, the commission will be chaired by a Central Government official, of the rank of a Secretary or Chief Secretary. It will also include the secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, along with five other officials as ex-officio members.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said, "We already have multiple bodies, constituted to curb air pollution. The powers given to this commission, those are similar to what was given to EPCA. The issue with EPCA was that it failed in implementation of the steps which were supposed to be taken to curb air pollution. It existed for 22 years, it had similar powers to penalise and for penalty."

"The question whether the Act would change the direction of how pollution will be tackled in India, will be decided on the basis if it changes the status quo of implementation of the regulations which are acting on the pollution sources," he added.

In matters of air pollution, the Commission will supersede all existing bodies such as the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and even the state governments of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

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"That is a positive thing about the commission as it will have representation from Central committees as well as the State Committees and will supersede all the other authorities. So, it may bring more coordination and results into action on ground," the environmental expert said.

However, Dahiya asserted that in the case of air pollution, the provisions should be implemented in the entire country, and not particularly just for Delhi.

"The other issue is that this Commission still looks at just Delhi-NCR, which shows that the government itself believes that the lives of people in other parts of the country aren't that valuable," he said.

On the provision for jail term and penalty of up to Rs one crore on the violation of environmental norms, Dahiya said, "The earlier provisions also had penalization and penalty and that was being particularly decided as per the Environmental Protection Act. But imposing the fine of Rs 1 crore on violations will be a challenge because there have been lots of legal cases where fines of hundred of crores were being imposed on the factories. We can decide a minimum amount of fine which can be raised on the basis of the severity of violation."

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