New Delhi: Coming down heavily on both Punjab and Haryana governments for their failure to curb stubble burning in their states causing spike in pollution levels in the national capital, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled the governments in both the states and gave a seven-day ultimatum to formulate a plan to buy the stubble from the farmers. "It is a question of life and death of crores of people in Delhi-NCR region which is facing severe air pollution and the authorities have to be held responsible for its failure to curb it," SC said.

"Can you permit people to die like this due to pollution? Can you permit the country to go back by 100 years," observed a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. Giving an ultimatum to the state governments, the top court said that if they don't bother about people, they have no right to be in power.

"You (states) have forgotten the concept of welfare government. They are not bothered about poor people, this is very unfortunate," said the bench, also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta. It also questioned as to why the state governments cannot collect and purchase stubble from farmers.

"We expect more from democratic government of the country to deal with issue of stubble burning and curb pollution," the bench said, adding that "it is a question of life and death of crores of people. We have to make government responsible for this," it stated.

Lambasting the Chief Secretary of Punjab, the top court said, "If you don't have the funds, tell us we will provide for the fund. Don't think about the funds right now."

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Directing the Punjab government to take coercive measures to curb stubble burning in the state, SC said, "You are not bankrupt. You are running a government but don't have money for poor farmers? If you are not diverting funds, don't think Courts are powerless."

The Special Bench of the top court also questioned the state governments of Punjab and Haryana over why the administration was not ready in advance even though "everyone knew that stubble burning would occur" as an annual event.

Here's what Justice Mishra directed to Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana:

1. Make plan of purchasing this stubble
2. Make sure no burning takes place
3. Make your entire administration responsible

According to reports, Delhi's air quality index (AQI) improved further from 'severe plus' to 'poor' on Wednesday morning, bringing relief to people after a week as the AQI was recorded at 249 and the concentration of the particulate matter reading PM 10 at moderate levels.

The PM 10 count is at 178 in the moderate category, seen after many days and the PM 2.5 count is at 105 in the poor category. There is a huge improvement over Tuesday's air quality also. The AQI stood at 356, PM 10 at 278 and PM 2.5 at 193 in the very poor category, on Tuesday.

Despite stubble burning in Punjab at its highest of the season, the wind speed in Delhi has done the reverse and helped the AQI to improve very sharply. According to an earlier forecast by Safar India, the AQI is rapidly recovering from the severe category largely due to faster winds to flush it out.

The SC had on Tuesday registered a fresh case in connection with the air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The court took up the case on its own, as the bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was left in anguish on the response of the state machinery in combating air pollution, which resulted in a public health emergency in the national capital.

The suo motu case titled "alarming rise in air pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas" will came up for hearing along with other matters on pollution earlier in the day. Earlier, the top court also imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on people involved in burning waste. The court made it clear that if violations were to surface, the local administration and zonal officials would be held accountable.