The President recently signed an ordinance brought in by the Centre for a Commission to manage air quality in the National Capital Region.
The body will be chaired by a government official of the rank of Secretary or Chief Secretary, and will include the Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and five other Secretary/Chief Secretary level officials as ex-officio members.
The Commission is said to have exclusive jurisdiction over the NCR, including areas in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, in matters of air pollution, and will be working along with CPCB and ISRO, apart from the respective state governments.
The ordinance says that states as well as central bodies will not have jurisdiction over matters related to air pollution. The ordinance states that the Commission shall supervise coordination between states, planning and execution of policy and interventions, operations of industry, inspections, research into the causes of pollution etc.
This move has not been enjoyed by state government officials and environmentalists. Because of a few lacunas, environmentalists are concerned about the power of decision making residing in the hands of government officials. They fear that their participation would turn redundant.
Some also question that the ordinance has taken the matters away from jurisdiction as only NGT, and not civil courts, is authorized to hear cases where the Commission is involved.
State governments also seem to not be quite satisfied with the ordinance. As per them, the Commission gives more representation to central government members compared to the members of the state governments.
