As Delhiites continue to choke on the toxic air, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, 17 December, took cognisance of the matter and told the Rekha Gupta-led government to “think of pragmatic and practical solution” to tackle the air pollution crisis in the national capital. The Supreme Court also flagged the “total failure” of the authorities in controlling the pollutant levels in the city, ANI reported.
Speaking on the plight of construction workers who lost employment after GRAP-4 was imposed in the national capital to curb pollution, the top court also directed the Delhi government to assess how many construction workers have been rendered jobless due to restrictions in Delhi and “transfer money into their accounts”.
“Verify and make sure that the payment goes directly to their account, it should not be like after a couple of hours, it disappears, travels to another account…merely because you send it to the account and account is Aadhar verified is not an effective solution,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said.
In response, the Delhi government told the top court that 7,000 of the 2.5 lakh construction workers are verified and money will be transferred to their accounts.
During the hearing today, the Supreme Court has also asked the Delhi government to consider providing alternative work to construction workers who are sitting idle due to restrictions.
“Let's think of 2026, all the work is stopped in December, but in Jan-Feb it comes up...why don't you come up with a plan of providing them work in the permissible activities, and cannot they be diverted to that?” the chief justice asked.
Earlier today, Delhi Labour Minister Kapil Mishra announced ₹10,000 in compensation for construction workers rendered unemployed due to the pollution-battling GRAP III and GRAP IV measures. “Workers will be awarded compensation for the days GRAP IV will remain in place. These benefits will be extended to workers registered with the government. The registration process is ongoing,” he said.
The measure excludes workers from hospitals, departments involved in the fight against air pollution, the fire department and other essential services.
The national capital's air quality saw some improvement this morning, with an AQI of 328 as against 377 a day ago, even as smog blanketed the city. The air quality in the city at 9 AM was in the 'very poor' category. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 to 100 'satisfactory', 101 to 200 'moderate', 201 to 300 'poor', 301 to 400 'very poor', and 401 to 500 'severe'.
