new delhi with the central government working on a new law to tackle air pollution in delhi and the national capital region another statutory body looks likely it may not only be empowered to prevent stubble burning in punjab haryana and uttar pradesh but also be able to enforce other antipollution measures in the region the draft of the legislation is to be completed within three days the supreme court was informed on mondaytrack the pollution level in your citysuch a body under the new law will join the likes of the supreme courtappointed environment pollution prevention and control authority and three antipollution task forces under the central pollution control board prime ministers office and the union ministry of environment and forestswhatever steps or programmes the new body comes up with will be simultaneous to a number of special pollution measures already in place such as the graded response action plan grap statelevel action plans the comprehensive action plan cap and the longterm national clean air programme ncapthis is why experts believe the addition of another central law and body will only complicate the situation as it is even with the numerous laws in existence burning of harvest remains hasnt ceased in fact this year punjab has been recording three times the number of stubble fires than last year according to satellite datathe focus therefore shouldnt be on introducing new legislations and statutory bodies but on implementing the extant laws opined anumita roy chowdhury executive director research and advocacy centre for science and environment we dont know what direction the new legislation will take but we need implementation on the ground now she emphasised the challenge is not about having enough legal authority which we already have but making the right investment and ensuring implementation of the existing measureschowdhury cited the recently notified norms for municipal solid waste management ewaste management and plastic waste management laws for all of which exist on paper but are hardly enforcedsantosh harish fellow centre for policy research however believed such a body and the funds provided to it could be crucial to how air pollution was managed in delhincr there is a strong case to be made for effective coordination across states and agencies in managing air quality the present crisis provides an opportunity for muchneeded institutional changes harish said however i hope this is not a reactionary measure that ends up creating a hastily conceived agencyharish said use of funds staffing and technical expertise were important factors for an antipollution body epca already has a similar mandate and considerable powers in theory so policymakers should learn from what worked and did not work with that body he said adding that any new institution should represent the different states and local governments concerned key sectoral agencies like transport and civil societyenvironmental lawyer ritwick dutta noted the confusion potential in numerous agencies doing the same work as of now the central government uses powers under section 5 of the environment protection act 1986 to issue