MUMBAI: A day after a five-member committee, appointed by the Bombay High Court (HC) last month to inspect pollution-control violations in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, tabled its report on breaches in many of the 36 inspected construction and infra sites, the court on Tuesday sharply criticised the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for failing to enforce strict compliance measures with the guidelines laid down to control air pollution in the city.
During Tuesday’s hearings, BMC chief Bhushan Gagrani and member secretary of MPCB Devendra Singh were also present, on the judges’ insistence the previous day, to explain the inaction of their respective officers. The lawyers of both the bodies explained the steps taken by them to enforce the guidelines.
The court had summoned Gagrani and Singh after Amicus Curiae Darius Khambata pointed out that the findings of the committee reflected a complete lack of monitoring of pollution spots such as construction and infrastructure sites.
“If things go out of hand, then nothing will remain within your control,” the judges said, referring to the situation around New Delhi where air pollution levels reach alarming levels every winter. They insisted that the authorities offer a sustainable, year-on-year solution to air pollution and not temporary measures limited to one season. The division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Gautam Akhand has now asked the BMC and MPCB to come up with concrete measures to curb air pollution across the metropolis and posted the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.
The court was hearing a suo-motu public interest litigation (PIL) taken up in 2023 and a bunch of intervention applications filed after the air quality index (AQI) in the city worsened in the beginning of the last month.
When the judges asked when Gagrani had actually stepped out of his office to inspect a construction site, senior advocate S U Kamdar, representing BMC, informed that in the middle of October the civic chief had conducted surprise inspections of two sites. He also said that BMC’s last review of air pollution data and compliance was conducted on October 28.
Kamdar added that since November, the corporation has issued 433 show-cause notices to construction sites for non-compliance with guidelines and 148 stop-work notices.
With regards to malfunctioning air quality monitors at construction sites, Kamdar informed the court that 1,080 air quality monitoring stations were installed across the city, of which 895 were operational and 675 were relaying data to BMC’s central system. He also conceded that 220 monitors were not relaying data and work was on to get them up to speed.
The judges however clarified that the court’s intent was not to halt development, but since the current situation reflected negligence by builders and weak enforcement by the authorities, guidelines must be enforced rigorously.
The statement came after Khambata pointed out that MPCB has itself identified construction activity and road dust as the biggest contributors to air pollution and therefore mandatory measures such as water fogging, covering construction and demolition sites, installing CCTV cameras, sensor-based air pollution meters, and proper barricading at all sites be enforced.
The senior advocate added that according to BMC’s own data, only about one-third of construction sites were reporting AQI information and conditions on the ground are vastly different from the guidelines framed over two years ago.