Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and MLA Atishi on Tuesday said that the people of Delhi are unable to breathe in clean air due to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and appealed to the ‘Air Quality Commission’ (AQC) as well as the Supreme Court to take the suo-moto cognizance of the matter and file cases of criminal negligence against the Chief Ministers of both the States who have put entire North India in a public health emergency.
The people of Delhi and NCR have been suffering for the last 1.5 months from pollution due to the criminal negligence of chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana. Due to the Corona pandemic, the situation further worsened this time because this is a disease that affects the lungs. The mild symptoms of Corona turned into moderate due to pollution, and moderate symptoms turned into severe symptoms, and people with severe symptoms are fighting for their lives today. All of this is because of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, which is why it is difficult for the people of Delhi to breathe. If that is the case, how are the people of Delhi getting clean air for the last two days?"
As per the data of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), it shows that starting from 15th to 17th October, up till 1st November, the daily cases of stubble burning in Punjab alone stood at 5000, she said, adding that after the stubble burning cases touched the peak, they still remained at around 2000-3000 cases daily.
“If you see the data of the last two days, the stubble burning cases have gone down from 2500 to 350 and 125 on 14th and 15th November respectively. We can see a huge difference in the air quality of entire North India and also Delhi NCR due to a reduced number of farm fires," she added.