SC tears into Punjab & Haryana on crop burnings, says 'You can't let people die like this'

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Punjab and Haryana governments for not doing enough to control pollution. The Chief Secretaries of both states were present in the court. While the Punjab Chief secretary stated that stubble burning was still going on despite various measures, the bench expressed its displeasure. Maintaining that nothing had happened since January 2018 when a panel was constituted to look into this issue, the SC issued a warning that heavy monetary penalties could be imposed on all officers. 

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'You can't let people die like this'

The SC bench told the Punjab Chief Secretary that people couldn’t be left to die like this. Observing that people in Delhi were suffocating, the apex court commented that people shouldn’t die of cancer just because the Punjab government had failed to implement necessary measures. Thereafter, the Haryana Chief Secretary faced the ire of the SC. Noting that the instances of stubble burning in Haryana had increased even after the SC order prohibiting the practice, the court questioned the chief secretary of the state on this matter. Justice Arun Mishra stated that the lives of millions of people had shortened and they were suffocating due to pollution in the Delhi-NCR region.  

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