The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the issue of stubble burning needs constant monitoring as it warned Delhi and neighbouring states to implement a slew of suggestions.

The top court further asked to report the progress within two months in the endeavour to make Capital’s winter “better” by next year.

A bench headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul noted that despite a series of steps taken and directions issued by the Court over the past months, Delhi’s air continues to be in the red with air quality index (AQI) still above the 300 mark, corresponding to ‘very poor’ levels and farm fires, still significant in number in neighbouring Punjab.

“There needs to be a judicial mechanism to ensure we are not faced with this situation next year,” said the bench, also comprising justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, while indicating that the AQI in Delhi is not falling below the 300 level.

Posting the matter for hearing on February 27, the Court said, “States concerned have to continue to take steps. This matter needs constant monitoring. We intend to monitor it for some time and not take it up only when such a situation arises…Let us endeavour so that the next winter is a little better.”

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The Court had in November urged the Punjab government and the Central government to find an alternative to paddy cultivation in the state amid the rising air pollution due to stubble burning.

The Court also suggested discussing alternatives to end the practice of stubble burning and suggested that farmers who engage in stubble burning should be barred from receiving government subsidies and benefits, such as the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy.

Attorney General R Venkataramani appearing for the Centre informed the Court that as per the earlier orders, a committee of secretaries headed by the Union cabinet secretary held five meetings with concerned states, Punjab and Haryana, and stakeholders and proposed steps to be taken individually by states, inter-ministerial committee and municipal bodies in Delhi.

The report made an important recommendation for the states of Haryana and Punjab governments to disincentivize stubble burning by denying MSPs to farmers indulging in such actions.

It said, “The states (of Punjab and Haryana) may take immediate steps to put in place mechanisms for making red entry in farm records for all cases of stubble burning. Department of Food and Public Distribution may consider the suggestion to exclude farmers who resort to stubble burning from MSP operations.”

Further, the report asked the Punjab government to come out with incentive schemes for diversification from paddy and work with grain-based distilleries to facilitate procurement of maize from farmers.

Also Read: On stubble burning, Supreme Court’s strong words for Punjab: ‘Take a cue from Haryana’

Taking the committee report on record the bench said, “We direct the state governments to take steps in respect of the aforesaid report and submit progress report to Court within two months from today.”

At the suggestion of senior advocates ADN Rao and Aparajita Singh assisting the Court as amici curiae, the Court directed the Union cabinet secretary-led committee to call for reports from States and Union Territories on the progress made on the rollout of colour-coded stickers for tagging petrol and diesel cars with blue and orange stickers.

It further asked the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to study the problem of burning e-waste in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to ensure some arrangement is worked out so that the situation does not aggravate during winter.

The report by the Centre also annexed meetings held by the committee where CAQM conducted enforcement drives and found that in Punjab, out of the cumulative farm fires of 36,663 reported this year, the state had collected an environmental compensation charge of Rs.2.51 crore from 28% of the erring farmers. The state government informed the Court that the collection had increased to 53%.

Noting, the bench said, “All this must stop. The point is farm fires are still significant,” and directed the state to expedite the collection of penalties from the farmers who are at fault.

The committee of secretaries had noted that Punjab accounted for 93% of farm fires reported in and around Delhi extending to other states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.