The Bombay High Court Monday set a time limit — between 7 pm and 10 pm — to burst firecrackers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) during the Diwali festival, considering the deteriorating air quality in and around the city. The court also ordered curbs on vehicles carrying construction material. This was the latest in a series of responses following reports in The Indian Express’s ongoing series on Mumbai’s air quality. A lowdown of all the Indian Express reports part of the Mumbai air series and the response by the authorities to them so far. The Indian Express Report on October 20 Pollution plan gathers dust Despite having a Mumbai Air Pollution Mitigation Action Plan (MAPMP) in place, no monitoring of dust mitigation measures has been carried out in construction sites; also, during the site visits, The Indian Express found out that pre-emptive measures like sprinkling water and barricading the periphery of construction sites were not done. Despite the rules in place, no action was being taken against violators. What did authorities say? Municipal Commissioner and state-appointed administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal directed that any construction project that sprawls over one acre and beyond the height of 70 metres must erect 35-foot-high tin or metal sheets. In comparison, sites spanning within one acre must install sheets with a height of 25 feet at least. For the BMC worksites as well as sites of ongoing metro works, meanwhile, the BMC has instructed the installation of 25-foot-tall barricading. The civic body has given contractors and project proponents 15 days to procure water sprinklers and 30 days for smog guns. Construction sites that flout norms will be issued a ‘stop work’ notice. Also, vehicles transporting construction debris without covering the carriages will be seized. The Indian Express report on October 21 Not enough air quality monitoring station Currently, Mumbai has 21 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS), less than one-third of the National Clean Air Programme’s recommendation for Mumbai, which states that the city should have 67 CAAQMS. What did the authorities say? Minesh Pimpale, deputy municipal commissioner (environment), told The Indian Express that the BMC is setting up five new CAAQMS in the city that will be operational soon. Civic officials also said that sensor-based AQI monitoring stations will be installed in several pockets of Mumbai. Avinash Dhakane, CEO of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), told The Indian Express that 41 new CAAQMS will be installed in several other parts of Maharashtra for better air quality monitoring. The Indian Express report on October 25 No rules followed for garbage burning The BMC’s bye-laws have stated a fine against waste burning at Rs 100 only, penalty amount not revised since 2006. Also, during this 17-year period, not a single violator has been fined. No clean-up marshals have been present on the streets of Mumbai since March 2022, despite the civic body claiming that a ward-level task force would be formed to identify and tackle garbage burning and open dumping of waste. The reckless burning of open garbage in landfills and various other parts of the city is adding to the air pollution in Mumbai. As a result, the PM2.5 in Mumbai’s air has increased by 45 per cent in the past year. What did the authorities say? Issuing a statement, the BMC officials said the civic body is currently revising the SWM bye-laws, aimed at establishing rigorous rules and regulations for effective management of municipal solid waste. The civic body said it is deploying marshals in all the 24 municipal wards of Mumbai and under the proposed system, 30 clean-up marshals will be pressed into operation in every ward. The BMC said that there would be a complete ban on open burning anywhere in the geographical area under it, especially garbage dumping ground. The Indian Express report on October 30 Air gets worse but advisories are missing The Indian Express reported that the civic body did not issue any advisory to the citizens despite the city recording poor and very poor AQI. The report also pointed out that the civic administration, while announcing its budget in February this year, published its plan to issue health advisories. Later, in the Mumbai Air Pollution Mitigation Plan (MAPMP), the BMC also announced issuing notifications to citizens on periods of worsening air quality in similar lines with bulletins issued by the weather bureau during instances of adverse climate conditions. What did the authorities do? The state health department on November 5 announced a health action plan under which district-level task forces will monitor pollution-related illnesses and compare them with daily AQI levels. Earlier, on October 31, the guardian minister of Mumbai (city), Deepak Kesarkar, announced the setting up of a command and control centre to monitor the AQI level at a local level and issue health advisories to citizens. Actions taken by authorities so far The BMC, between November 3 and 5, penalised several vehicles transporting open debris and collected a fine amount of Rs 41 lakh. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) issued closure notices to plants of CEAT Tyres and JSW Greens Cement Private Limited for flouting air pollution norms. Alongside this, over the past two weeks, MPCB officials have sent out notices to firms, including Hindustan Petroleum, Tata Power’s thermal station, Aegis Logistics, Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers and Sealord Containers, asking them to adhere to environmental norms. The MPCB has also asked Aegis and Sealord to curtail its production by 50 per cent and has forfeited their bank guarantee by a significant margin. How has the Bombay High Court intervened? The Bombay High Court on October 31 took cognisance of the Death by Breath series and took suo-moto action. Later in its hearing on November 6, the court ordered that crackers would be allowed to burst only between 7 pm and 10 pm. The high court is also set to monitor the action taken by urban local bodies and state governments to mitigate this issue.
