Context
The Union Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change introduced the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021, in Parliament.
What is the Bill all about?
- The Bill aims to create an overarching body for the consolidation of all pollution-monitoring bodies and to bring them on one platform to make the air-quality management in a more comprehensive, efficient, and time-bound manner.
- The monitoring and management of air quality in the Delhi-NCR region is done in pieces by multiple bodies which includes
- Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
- State pollution control boards
- State governments in the region, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan
- Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) of the National Capital Region
- They are further monitored by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEF), and by the Supreme Court that monitors air pollution as per the judgment in the ‘M C Mehta vs Union of India’ case in 1988.
- The commission will concentrate to improve air quality during winter especially.
- It will also suggest measures to mitigate pollution throughout the year.
- Two ordinances were introduced to introduce the commission in 2020 and 2021.
- The commission has replaced the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) which was running for 22 years as its powers were diminishing and were devoid of any penal provisions.
- The Bill now will replace both the ordinances.
Composition of the commission
- Chairperson: It will be headed by a full-time chairperson with experience of not less than 15 years in the field of environmental protection and pollution control or having administrative experience of not less than 25 years.
- Members of the commission:
- An official from the Environment Ministry
- five ex-officio members who are either chief secretaries or secretaries from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh
- one full-time member who is or has been a joint secretary
- three full-time independent technical members who are experts in air pollution, one technical member each from the Central Pollution Control Board and Indian Space Research Organization
- Three members from non-governmental organizations who deal in air pollution and one representative of the National Institution for Transforming India.
- Three members, being stakeholders from sectors such as agriculture, industry, transport, or construction apart from representatives of several ministries, including Road Transport and Highways, Power, Housing and Urban Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Commerce and Industry.
- There will also be representatives of any association from the commerce or industry sector.
- The commission will have at least three sub-committees —monitoring and identification, safeguarding and enforcement, and research and development.
Concerns against the bill
- The penalization for stubble burning: Centre government has decriminalized stubble burning for farmers. While the penalty still exists for other sectors and individuals.
- Collection of environmental compensation from farmers
- The concentration of power under the Central Government.
- An overwhelming number of the bureaucrats in the commission.
- Orders of the commission can only be contested in the National Green Tribunal.
