The Supreme Court on Wednesday did not spare the representatives of the governments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and blasted them for failing to prevent severe air pollution in Delhi-NCR on account of stubble burning. In particular, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari faced the ire of the apex court after he failed to come up with a concrete road map on ways to curb burning of crop residue. Adding to the misery, Tiwari started his submissions before the bench by telling his name to the court, which did not go down well with justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta. "We do not want to know your name. We do not want any lecture. What is the road map?" the bench asked the 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. Further embarrassment followed for Tiwari after he said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was himself reviewing the situation. To this, the anguished bench said, "CM or PM, we are not interested in names. We are interested in actual work only." There was no relief in sight for the the Punjab chief secretary too and he got pulled up by the court for not taking proactive steps to curb stubble burning, which has been largely blamed for deteriorating air quality in neighbouring states during winters. “We will suspend you from here…problem is all have forgotten the concept of welfare state,” Justice Mishra told the distraught chief secretary. Asserting that agriculture was the backbone of the economy and farmers needed support from the government, the top court directed Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to provide a support of Rs 100 per quintal to those small and marginal farmers, who had not burnt stubble, within seven days.
