The Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuked the Delhi Traffic Police for partially implementing only five of the 77 short-term measures that a task force had suggested to help reduce traffic in the Capital, The Indian Express reported.

“You cannot take five out of 77 measures and that too you are doing only partially,” a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told government counsel Wasim A Qadri. “You say that the NHAI [National Highways Authority of India] has to do this, someone else has to do that. What [do] you have to do?”

Qadri told the court that 28 traffic corridors would have to be considered in order to implement the task force’s recommendations. The construction of flyovers and underpasses would take time, he added. The lawyer informed the court that steps would be taken to remove encroachments from places such as the Dhaula Kuan intersection, Sardar Patel Marg, 11 Murti Road and Panchsheel Marg.

Lawyer Aparajita Singh, who is the amicus curiae in the case, suggested that the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Limited be asked to come up with a plan for decongesting the city’s roads, and that the court hear this along with the matter of comprehensive action plan on curbing air pollution. The court agreed with her suggestion.

Curbing pollution

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday claimed that his government would move on a “war footing” to reduce air pollution in the National Capital Region, PTI reported.

The government is planning to buy 2,000 buses for public transport this year and also begin a large-scale tree plantation drive, he said. “Delhi government does not lack political will because we brought odd-even scheme, which was very difficult to implement, but we still did it.”

The government is working on a multi-department action plan to tackle the high levels of pollution in the region. The proposal will be incorporated in the 2018-’19 Delhi Budget, billed as the city’s first “green Budget”, that will be presented in March.