“Construction has been underway in full swing in E9, Defence Colony, despite GRAP-4 restrictions in place,” says Arun Sri Kumar, a lawyer based in the national capital who practices at the Delhi High Court.
“The web-based complaint system doesn’t work. Phone numbers to register grievances don't work. The Green Delhi app of the Delhi Pollution Complaints Committee (DPCC) on AppStore says the app does not exist. How do we even report!” he asks.
Kumar is shocked and saddened to witness the complete breakdown and failure of all mechanisms to even report about the ongoing construction in his area which flouts the GRAP-4 restrictions. He is afraid whether there's anyone who’s working on the implementation part of the Supreme Court order to ensure the pollution level goes down in Delhi-NCR.
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“What’s the point of shutting down schools if all this goes on? I have a 10-month-old child at my home and there’s no one to stop construction activities in my locality. How many parents can afford purifiers and move on like I can?” he says.
Since November 18, the entire Delhi-NCR region has been put under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) IV by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). GRAP-4 is considered the strictest plan to combat the toxic air that has engulfed Delhi. Under stage IV of GRAP, all construction activities are banned. Delhi experienced ‘very poor’ air with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 350 on December 1.
During a hearing in the Supreme Court on November 18, the Delhi government said it had stopped construction work in the capital. However, lawyers alerted the Bench about a building work going on within the apex court complex itself.
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They said the AQI in the courtroom was 994. The court had directed all state governments which have areas within the National Capital Region (NCR) to strictly implement GRAP-4. However, the reality on the ground turned out to be different.
Construction activities across Delhi-NCR carried on, with builders giving a toss to the top court order and state machinery of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh failing to ensure the implementation of restrictions on construction.
Woes of labourers
A week later on November 25, the court observed that several sections of society are adversely affected due to GRAP IV, including labourers. The court has asked all states to use funds collected as labour cess for subsistence to labourers during the span of the construction ban.
Manish, 32, a daily wage labourer from Bihar who’s now residing in Delhi, says he has no other means to earn money to feed his family, given that construction work has been halted at the site where he used to work. A large chunk of construction workers hail from states like Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh. The majority of them are facing a livelihood crisis as the city’s pollution levels refuse to go down.
Construction activities were banned for 20 days in 2021 and for 35 days in 2022. In 2023, non-essential construction work was banned for 26 days, and 2024 has seen a ban on similar lines for almost a month now.
Sushil, another labourer, who has been living in the city for the last two decades is rendered jobless temporarily. “Since the past few years, this has become the trend. We don’t have work around winters as construction activities are banned.” He says many like him are caught in a cycle of debt and have borrowed money to cater to the needs of his family.
Construction activity underway in Chandni Chowk, Delhi | Sumit Singh & Syed Abubakr
Construction-related activities accounts for 10-30 per cent of pollution
According to a study by UrbanEmissions.Info which reviewed Delhi's air pollution from 1990-2022 found that construction-related activities play a significant role in adding dust particles to the atmosphere, accounting for 10-30 per cent of the pollution.
A fund managed by the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board provides financial aid to non-migrant workers in times of distress like this one. However, the number of registrations has significantly dropped from four lakh workers in 2023 to only 81,000 workers now.
On November 28, a report was submitted by Supreme Court-appointed court commissioners in the top court, while a hearing on the air pollution case, was underway. It highlighted glaring lapses in the implementation of GRAP-4. The report flagged construction work being carried out at the residences of several government officials despite a ban under anti-pollution measures in place.
“Construction and renovation work is taking place at the residences of various senior officials of HUDCO, BHEL, RITES, HAL, and ITPO in the Asian Games Village. Rampant construction work is going on at various colonies in Delhi, and large-scale construction in Greater Noida. Construction materials were found lying uncovered in several areas in Delhi and neighbouring NCR cities,” the report noted.
The report only adds to and testifies what we found across Delhi, Noida and Gurugram.
Nilesh Gaurav, a digital payment and lending professional, flagged a construction activity going on in Bhagwani Kunj in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. “Who cares for GRAP stages if you have connections at the right place,” he said.
Sanjeev Sharma, President of Suraksha Jan Nagrik Kalyan Samiti, has been voicing his concerns against the flouting of restrictions imposed on construction activities. He listed out at least four places near his residence in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area where construction activities are underway.
“Even today GRAP-4 is being violated in my area, people are facing breathing issues here and construction is going on openly despite multiple complaints being given to authorities,” he said.
The scene in neighbouring Noida is no different. We saw construction restrictions being flouted at Central Ikon, an upcoming commercial project by Westway Fairfox group in Sector 105 Noida. Renowned real estate developer Fairfox ItInfra is behind its development.
Gauri Sarin, convenor of ‘Making Model Gurugram’ shared with us a video in which a sky-rocketing under-construction building is seen openly flouting restrictions in place. “In M3M Golf Hill, Sector 79, Gurugram, construction work is underway. There’s no implementation of GRAP-4 despite the court order. There’s a complete mili-bhagat (deal) between the government and the builders,” she claimed.
As governments fail to bring down the pollution levels, courts have stepped in for the rescue of citizens.
The Supreme Court pulled up authorities while reacting to reports that cement was being smuggled inside bags containing wheat flour to continue in the construction work. The court also took on officials for allowing non-essential construction activities in the city. "We passed an order but what is the purpose? Nobody is bothered about implementation," it lamented.
Failure to implement GRAP-4 restrictions
The failure to ensure the implementation of GRAP-4 restrictions raises two important points. One points to the fact that it has been a complete failure of state machinery across NCR to halt the construction activities despite the court’s order. How is the state planning to bring pollution levels down if the efforts are only put on paper and not on the ground?
And second, it creates a divide within the construction fraternity so to speak. On one hand, we have daily wagers and labourers facing a livelihood crisis as they have no work owing to a halt in the construction activities, and on the other hand- owing to the incompetency of the bureaucracy- we have big construction projects going on without any checks.
This dichotomy brought in by pollution needs to be given a thought. But what’s more concerning is the fact that both sets of workers are going through hell. The one who isn’t getting work is finding it hard to put food on the table for his family, and on the other hand, the one who’s getting work is working under a circumstance where he is breathing polluted air at the construction site without any safety gear in place.
The government’s priority as of now should be to bring down the pollution levels and make sure no worker loses his means of livelihood and no worker performs his job in an atmosphere where he gasps for breath.
