New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Wednesday rapped the Haryana and Punjab governments for not prosecuting violators in the stubble burning case and asked the Chief Secretaries of the two states to appear before it on October 23 and give an explanation.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih directed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to take punitive action against Haryana and Punjab government officials for failing to take action against the violators.
The bench said, “This is not a political matter. If the Chief Secretary is working on someone’s instructions then we will issue summons against him also. Next Wednesday we will call the Chief Secretary and ask him everything. Nothing has been done, Punjab government also did the same. “This attitude is one of complete disregard.” The court reprimanded the Punjab government on this matter and said that not a single case has been filed in the state in the last three years regarding stubble burning.
He said that the Punjab government has not made any effort to seek funds from the Center to provide tractors to the farmers.
The apex court compared the CAQM to a toothless tiger. Earlier, the court had pulled up the CAQM for failing to curb air pollution in Delhi due to stubble burning in neighboring states and said it needed to adopt a more proactive approach.