The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to make a decision by June 30 on imposing a ban on the import of petroleum coke, a dirtier alternative to coal, PTI reported. The court had in October banned the use and sale of petroleum coke in Delhi and the National Capital Region. The government had told the court in April it was considering a ban on the use of the fuel.

The court also asked the government on Thursday to consider implementing the National Clean Air Programme in Delhi before it thinks of doing it at the national level. The government has envisaged the National Clean Air Programme as a “medium-term national-level strategy” to tackle air pollution in 100 cities across the country.

“You [Centre] have lots of programmes but you can’t implement it,” the bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said. “You can’t implement the programmes in Delhi and you are talking about pan-India. You at least implement it in Delhi first.”

The court was hearing a matter related to a plea filed in 1985 by environmentalist MC Mehta in connection with air pollution in the National Capital Region.

The Centre told the court that parts of the comprehensive action plan had already been implemented to tackle air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region, and it would implement the plan in its entirety within four weeks.

The court will hear the matter next in July.