The Bombay High Court on Monday prima facie observed that there was “inaction” on the part of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in mitigating the poor air quality in the city and surrounding areas.
The court ordered BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani and member-secretary of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to remain present in court on Tuesday to explain the same.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad was hearing a suo motu PIL and other petitions initiated after taking note of various news reports, including The Indian Express’s ‘Death by Breath’ series, which highlighted an “alarming scenario” of air pollution beginning November 2023.
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The bench reviewed the report by a committee it had appointed to inspect some construction sites in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
The HC was told that the four-member panel comprising three lawyers and Anita Patil, Conservator of Forests, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, inspected 36 sites between December 6 and 13, including industrial units such as ready-mix concrete (RMC) plants, under-construction buildings, infrastructure development activities among others, across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
Senior advocate Darius Khambata, who was appointed by court to assist it in the matter as amicus curiae, said the compliance of the earlier orders of the court has become of a “reactive” nature than “proactive.”
Khambata and petitioners’ counsel stated that the findings of the committee demonstrate a “complete lack of monitoring of the air quality”. The judges took note of the steps taken by respondent authorities after the HC initiated suo motu plea.
“We have formed a prima facie opinion that the municipal commissioner and member-secretary of MPCB should personally explain the inaction on the part of the concerned officers. We, therefore, direct that municipal commissioner and member-secretary MPCB shall remain present on Tuesday, December 23,” the court said.
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The panel also found that Sameer App (the government platform monitoring AQI in Mumbai) displayed significantly lower AQI readings compared to third-party applications. The report noted the BMC officials, when asked, stated that the Sameer App uses higher-quality sensors than third-party apps. The panel noted that the “differences in reported AQI levels appear substantial.”
The panel also inspected three major project sites in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) including the Bullet Train project, an RMC plant (NAME), and Metro Line 2B and observed, “across all three locations recurring pattern of incomplete or inconsistent compliance with the pollution control requirements laid down by BMC and MPCB.”
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“Most constructions, demolition, industrial, and roadwork sites in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai continue to show absolute non-compliance with existing pollution-control
guidelines, despite these guidelines being in place,” the panel noted.
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The report further stated that there were no guidelines in place with respect to CCTV cameras to be installed along the periphery of the worksite for cleanliness or overload.
The panel observed that MPCB AQI monitoring station at Mahape in Navi Mumbai was “poorly maintained” with non-working display and unmanned monitoring station while the AQI data was not available to the panel.
It was further noted that the present mitigation measures including water sprinklers, fogging and smog guns are deployed in “a limited, ad-hoc or cosmetic manner.”
The panel further stressed on “urgent action” to ensure complete implementation of guidelines and real-time monitoring among other measures, ” without which air quality will continue to deteriorate and public health risks will persist unabated.”
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The panel had also inspected demolition activities at Government Colony in Bandra (East), which is a proposed site for Bombay High Court building and observed that the “demolition involved large-scale removal of existing structures, generating massive amounts of dust and debris which were scattered openly across the premises. There were no barricades, wet coverings, or dust-suppression mechanisms including sprinklers smog guns in place.”
The court was also informed that the construction site did not have “tin sheets, tarpaulin or jute coverings, leaving debris and dust fully exposed to the surrounding environment” and the dust generated from uncovered vehicle transporting construction and demolition (C&D) waste would disperse into public roads and residential areas.
It found the demolition activities to be “extremely negligent, dangerously unregulated, posing immediate risks to public health, safety, and ambient air and quality.”
