Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday ridiculed the “nonsensical claim” of his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal that the stubble burning in Punjab was solely responsible for the high levels of pollution in the national capital.
At the same time, he asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader to stop indulging in political theatrics and to check out the facts before shooting from his mouth.
Capt Amarinder came out with a series of hard facts to rubbish Kejriwal’s “ludicrous” statement, which he trashed as yet another attempt by the Delhi Chief Minister to divert public attention for his own government’s abysmal failure on all counts.
Having failed to deliver on governance to the people of Delhi, Kejriwal was, as usual, trying to take refuge in falsehoods and fabrications, said the Chief Minister.
Taking a dig at Kejriwal for his “preposterous logic” that the satellite pictures of stubble burning in Punjab was proof of it being the primary cause of the Delhi’s severe pollution, Capt Amarinder said that even a school kid would know better. “Can he (Kejriwal) really be an IIT graduate?” asked the Chief Minister, pointing to the sheer irrationality of his Delhi counterpart’s reasoning.
He (Kejriwal) has the audacity to call the picture scientific proof of his demented logic, observed Capt Amarinder, adding that had the Delhi Chief Minister bothered to check the data, he would have thought a hundred times before coming out with such a reckless statement.
Capt Amarinder demolished Kejriwal’s claim with recorded factual data, and warned that the people of Punjab would not take politely to AAP leader’s attempts to pin the blame for his own failures on their state.
He will see in the Lok Sabha elections what Punjab thinks of him and his AAP, said the Chief Minister, asking Kejriwal to be prepared for treatment worse than what he saw in the state in last year’s Assembly polls.
To begin with, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi remains more than 300-plus even during December and January every year, when there is no stubble burning in the neighbouring States which clearly indicates that the New Delhi environment is impacted by its own sources within Delhi. “These are predominantly vehicular emission, construction activities, industrial activities, power plants, burning of Municipal Solid Waste and sweeping activities,” he added.
Further, Capt Amarinder pointed out that as per the latest report of air pollution forecast by Weather Research and Forecasting Model of the India Meteorological Department, winds over Delhi-NCR had changed from north-westerly to easterly, so there was hardly any influence from crop fires in Punjab and Haryana. Yet, Delhi’s air quality continued to be “very poor”, with average PM2.5 concentrations of 208 micrograms per cubic meters on November 2, which was caused mainly from local vehicular and industrial emissions, he pointed.
“What is more, the increase in concentration of PM2.5 due to stubble burning is proportionately less as compare to PM10. Thus, the contribution of stubble fire in the increase of PM2.5 is less, whereas, the Ambient Air Quality in Delhi witnesses an increase in the PM2.5 during the winter months,” observed Capt Amarinder.
He said that due to decrease in temperature and wind velocity, the pollutants in the atmosphere are unable to disperse, which is the major cause of increase in AQI at most places in north India. “In particular, New Delhi, AQI crosses the 400-mark due to high emissions from activities of a large population in a confined area of NCR and inversion phenomenon of the climate,” he said adding that during October 2018, the wind velocity became static and decreased to less than two kms per hour as per available scientific data.
Capt Amarinder asserted that had stubble burning been the reason for Ambient Air Quality deterioration, it should have impacted the air quality index of the cities of Punjab in the first place. However, it had been observed that the average AQI of Punjab during October 2018 was 117, while the average AQI of Delhi hovered around 270, he said.
He added that most of the cities in Punjab have witness clear climate with long distance visibility, in sharp contrast to Delhi.
As far as stubble burning incidents was concerned, he said that the number of such cases till November 3 was 25,394, against 30,832 reported last year – clearly showing a decreasing trend. “The number of fire incidents per lakh acres of area under paddy plantation is 390, which is very nominal. In fact, the number of fire incidents per village is less than two (considering the number of villages in Punjab is 12,700),” said Capt Amarinder, adding that the State had been able to persuade 98 percent farmers not to practice the stubble burning.
The data clearly indicated that Kejriwal’s government in Delhi had failed completely in addressing the problem of pollution in the national capital, said Capt Amarinder, adding that the Delhi Chief Minister was quite obviously, hunting for scapegoats to put the blame for his own failures.