In a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Committee of Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjacent Areas declared that, in order to significantly reduce the number of stubble burning incidents, the Punjab state government and the various administrative agencies that fall under it must strictly and efficiently implement the action plan’s various components.
The Committee on Air Quality Management for the National Capital Region and Surrounding Areas reported that “the State government of Punjab and various administrative agencies under it need to strictly and effectively implement the various components of the action plan to drastically bring down stubble burning cases in areas where paddy harvest/management of paddy straw is still underway at this critical juncture when the paddy stubble burning incidents are at their peak.”
A second thorough review of the status of implementation of the respective plans for prevention and control of paddy stubble burning in the States of Punjab and Haryana was carried out by the Commission on November 2, 2023, and November 3, 2023, respectively, the report added. This was in addition to the numerous meetings that had previously been held.
The Chief Secretaries, the Secretaries in charge of the Department(s) in question, and the Deputy Commissioners thoroughly assessed the performance of these two states, including district-level performance in this area.
According to the report mentioned in the NGT, there was an urgent need to step up various measures outlined in the plans in order to enforce stricter monitoring. These measures include effective in-situ and ex-situ management measures in areas where the harvest has not yet been completed.
In accordance with the ISRO-developed protocol, the Commission has been closely monitoring the fire counts recorded due to paddy stubble burning, which has contributed to the commission report.
On October 20, 2023, the Bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava took suo moto notice of newspaper articles regarding the increasing levels of air pollution in Delhi and Punjab.