Delhi Air Pollution: As Delhi battles with the issue of air pollution which has made life tough for the residents in the national capital, Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party got entangled in a war of words over the issue of stubble buring. Haryana Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Dalal on Saturday lashed out at the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab over the stubble-burning incidents in the state, prompting a sharp reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the major reasons behind the alarming increase in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.
In his post on X, Dalal shared statistics of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana over the last three days. "We have demanded water from (Arvind) Kejriwal ji and Bhagwant Mann ji, not smoke of paddy stubble,” Dalal wrote in Hindi.
According to the data shared by the Haryana agriculture and farmers' welfare minister, Punjab witnessed 1,921, 1,668 and 1,551 farm fire incidents on November 1, 2 and 3 while stubble burning incidents in Haryana were 99, 48 and 28 on the three days, as reported by the news agency PTI>
Reacting to Dalal's statement, the AAP accused him of "spreading lies". "Twenty out of the 52 most polluted districts in the country are in Haryana and even then the Khattar government is playing politics and blaming Punjab," Punjab AAP unit spokesperson Neel Garg said.
In Punjab, the Mann government provided machinery to farmers to check stubble-burning incidents, he said. "And what did the Khattar government do... only politics," he said attacking the BJP-led government in the state.
As the window for wheat -- a key Rabi crop -- is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.
Several parts of Haryana on Frida reported air quality indices in the 'severe' category while it was 'poor' in parts of neighbouring Punjab. Punjab reported a total of 12,813 stubble-burning incidents till Friday, according to Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Delhi woke up to another smoggy morning as the overall air quality remained in the “severe category”. According to data by the Central Pollution Control Board at 7 am on Saturday, the national capital logged an Air Quality Index of 413.
The condition in the adjacent Noida also remained the same as the national capital. In Noida’s Sector 116, the AQI was recorded at 426 while in Sector 62, it was 428, according to the CPCB. The worsening pollution has started to take a toll on the health of the residents as doctors expressed concerns that air pollution is causing an increase in respiratory and eye problems among children and the elderly.