After exchange of strongly-worded letters and making accusations against each other on micro blogging website Twitter, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal came face to face on Wednesday here to discuss the problem of smog at a meeting in which both the leaders offered full cooperation to tackle the environmental emergency.
Amidst the ongoing battle of political one-upmanship, the two Chief Ministers during their much-anticipated meeting warmly greeted each other with a friendly handshake but a restrained smile, following which they engaged in around 90 minutes meeting to deliberate on possible solutions to tackle rising air pollution in the region.
Manohar lal, who is heading a BJP Government in Haryana had just two days back made a fierce attack on Arvind Kejriwal, castigating the latter for his "inability to rise above short term electoral interests" to resolve the problem of smog. In a scathing letter, Manohar lal had also questioned Aam Aadmi Party led Delhi Government's initiatives to stop stubble burning in the national capital.
While the two Chief Ministers hoped for positive results from their first meeting on Wednesday at Haryana CM residence, both the sides seemed unable to talk about the exact outcome of discussions held over the serious issue of smog.
Both the CMs were accompanied by their Environment Ministers and senior bureaucrats.
Kejriwal, who had earlier entirely blamed the stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana for smog, on Wednesday at the meeting, said that one State cannot be blamed for smog and joint efforts are required to deal with this problem.
We are trying to meet the Chief Ministers of concerned States for this, said Kejriwal adding that we look forward to holding more such meetings with Haryana, Centre and other states to resolve the problem.
The Delhi Government, however, reiterated that the spike in pollution levels in the national Capital in the past week was due to stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana and called for implementing long-term measures to prevent re-occurrence of smog in winter 2018.
A wide range of topics discussed included crop residue burning, vehicular pollution, construction of bypass and widening of roads to ease traffic congestion, automation of tax collection, introduction of CNG vehicles among others.
Both sides also listed several measures taken by them to tackle the high levels of air pollution in their jurisdiction.
Although both the governments did not come out with a joint strategy to deal with the smog problem after the detailed discussion, they issued a joint statement saying that the meeting was held in an amicable environment.
In a brief statement to the mediapersons, Manohar lal and Arvind Kejriwal said that both the States have stressed upon the need for action on several measures aimed at preventing smog's re-occurrence next year in winter.