Air pollution
New Delhi: Lashing out at the authorities for failing to curb severe air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region, the Supreme Court Wednesday said it is a question of life and death of crores of people here but it is “very unfortunate” that they are not bothered about poor people and letting them die.
“Can you permit people to die like this due to pollution? Can you permit the country to go back by 100 years,” observed a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
“We have to make government responsible for this,” the bench said and asked, “Why can’t government machinery stop stubble burning?” Coming down heavily on state governments, the top court said that if they don’t bother about people, they have no right to be in power. “You (states) have forgotten the concept of welfare government. They are not bothered about poor people, this is very unfortunate,” said the bench. “You just want to sit in your ivory towers and rule. You are not bothered and are letting the people die,” it added. (PTI)