A day after Dellhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed Punjab for mounting air pollution levels in the national capital, Punjab’s Environment Minister OP Soni on Friday lashed out while asking him to rather look for internal reasons of Delhi air pollution.
Soni, after taking strong cognizance of Kejriwal’s statement to blame Punjab farmers for Delhi air pollution, Soni said: “Before blaming Punjab, Kejriwal should rather look for the internal reasons of Delhi air pollution as mentioned by the National Green Tribunal in its directions in Vardhaman Kaushik case.”
He suggested that Kejriwal should see scientific facts and logics before blaming hardworking farmers of the Punjab, who have opted various means offered by the Government to manage paddy stubble disowning the old practice of burning it in open fields.
Elaborating details, he said that average air quality index (AQI) of Punjab in October remained below 170, while in Delhi it remained above 350. “Average wind velocity remained below 1.5 km per hour and wind direction was from South-East and going to North-West but not towards Delhi,” he said while asking how canair pollutants reach Delhi, which is about 250 kms from Punjab border and that too crossing whole of Haryana, which is burning its stubble in open fields?
Soni also expressed surprise that Kejriwal has exonerated Haryana because of certain political considerations though all the adjoining states of Delhi are burning their stubble in open fields. “If farmers of the state polluted air quality of Delhi, then how can adjoining Union Territory Chandigarh be survived,” he asked.
“Paddy is sown in 65 lakh acres in Punjab, and till date, only 21,000 fire incidents have been reported which are just 323 fire incidents per one lakh acre. If the average is calculated per village, it is just less than two fire incidents per village. Kejriwal must not blame Punjab farmers without going through scientific facts, figures and logics,” he said.
The Minister said that due to awareness amongst farmers, this year, fire incidents reduced 35 percent than of the last year, while average air quality index of the state reduced to 105 points, that is 170 than of 275 points of last year.