NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Punjab and Haryana governments once again for failure to take enough steps to tackle stubble burning and air pollution in Delhi.The top court said that nothing was happening on the ground excepting meetings by the concerned authorities in the case.A two-judge bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih said, “No steps have been taken by the commission to monitor the implementation of its orders. Sadly, the harsh reality is except meetings, nothing is happening at the grassroot level.”Slamming the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for its failure to control stubble burning around the national capital, the apex court, after going through the report submitted by the Commission, said the body made no effort to implement its direction to prevent such incidents.“We therefore direct the state governments of Punjab and Haryana to file affidavits within one week, disclosing the implementation made by them of the directions issued by CAQM,” the apex court said, fixing the matter for further hearing to October 16.The top court also perused the compliance report filed by the CAQM, and questioned as to why it has not launched a single prosecution against cases registered over stubble burning. The court also asked why it has not taken any penal action against farmers over stubble burning and officials involved in taking action against them.In its last hearing, the SC also slammed the CAQM over its failure to curb air pollution due to crop residue burning. It also observed that the air quality panel needed to be more active in its approach in dealing with the issue.
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