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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court on Friday expressed its displeasure over rising air pollution in Mumbai and surrounding areas and said that uncontrolled traffic management has a direct bearing on increasing pollution.

“Innocent citizens cannot be victims of air pollution and helplessly suffer on such a count, due to inaction of the authorities in taking appropriate, timely and continuous measures,” the bench noted.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar was hearing a suo moto Public Interest Litigation after various news reports emerged.

The bench further said “Last 15-20 days, we have been facing a very serious and alarming problem in this city. Unless we pass orders, nothing happens. You should have taken immediate action to issue advisories. All this starts from the Diwali season,” the bench said.

The high court also said that despite all these big bridges, the coastal road, if people take one and a half hours from Bandra to Borivali, then traffic management has no significance at all. It also said that they were informed from Bandra to the airport, takes an hour and a half.

The division bench also remarked that from Marine Drive it could not see the other side of the sea.

“From Marine Drive, we could not see the other side of the sea. We cannot always survive on the almighty blessing of the winds, but we have to have our solution too…This is a situation of emergency. If we do not take care of present times, what is going to happen in future is anybody’s guess” the bench said.

Therefore, the bench sought a compliance affidavit from civic bodies and also asked them to activate sprinklers throughout the day to control dust and pollution. The bench will now hear the matter on January 9.