As the incidents of farm fire continue unabated in Punjab with the state reporting 1,842 cases on Tuesday, the state Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal shifted the blame on Haryana for Delhi’s poor air quality.
Questioning how Amritsar’s smoke can reach the national capital, Dhaliwal asserted that Punjab stubble is not the cause of pollution in Delhi, rather Rohtak, Panipat, Sonepat are the ones contributing to Delhi’s rising pollution levels.
Punjab on Tuesday reported 1,842 cases of stubble burning, a day after it reported the highest-ever single day figure of more than 2131 cases. Of the 1,842 farm fire incidents, Sangrur recorded 345 cases — the highest in the state, followed by Ferozepur recording 229 cases, Patiala 196, Bathinda 160, Tarn Taran 123, Barnala 97 and Muktsar 91.
Of the total farm fires, 70 per cent are being reported from Punjab’s six districts — Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Patiala, and Tarn Taran.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led State Government is under fire for its failure to control the menace causing rising pollution levels in Punjab and also the national capital. Delhi’s air quality on Tuesday turned ‘hazardous’ recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 551.
But the state Cabinet Minister claimed that Punjab cannot be blamed for the capital’s pollution. “How can Punjab’s pollution reach Delhi? How can Amritsar’s, and not Panipat’s smoke, reach Delhi,” asked Dhaliwal blaming Haryana. “Haryana is responsible for Delhi-NCR’s AQI. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hiding facts and number of fire incidents in Haryana,” said Dhaliwal, in an interview with a private news channel.
Talking about the solution to the menace of stubble burning, Dhaliwal said that the best alternative is crop diversification that is reducing paddy’s cultivation and encouraging the farmers to opt for other crops, like sugarcane.
“As far as paddy is concerned, we hardly use it. We consume it during weddings or programmes. We grow it for the rest of the country. Our water level has reduced because of the paddy. The best solution is to reduce the cultivation of paddy and encourage farmers to grow other crops such as sugarcane,” said Dhaliwal.
At the same time, the Minister blamed the Centre for not lending a helping hand to the state in controlling the menace. Defending the state authorities over the machines, given by Centre to manage stubble, “lying idle”, Dhaliwal said: “We started registration, and the Centre gave us 30,000 machines. The same were not used properly because of the social structure in our villages…The people who wanted machines were more but we have less number. We required two lakh machines, but we got only 1.20 lakhs.”
Asking the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to visit Punjab along with his Haryana’s counterpart, Dhaliwal said: “We want to show them the reality…The state received these machines out of the state’s GST share…Centre is the only one responsible for this menace.”
“We had proposed to the Centre to give compensation to farmers to stop burning stubble, but the Centre didn’t keep its promise and declined the proposal,” he added.
Despite a massive awareness exercise by the State Government to dissuade burning of crop residue, the farmers continued to burn paddy straw to clear the fields for sowing the next crop -- wheat and vegetables.
Haryana Breathes 'Poor', 'Very Poor' Air; Punjab AQI in 'Moderate' and 'Poor' Categories
The neighbouring Haryana has reported nearly 2,000 cases of stubble burning so far with the state reporting less than 100 cases in a day. Many places in Haryana on Tuesday reported air quality indices in the 'poor' and 'very poor' categories. The air quality index (AQI) in Punjab was in the 'moderate' and 'poor' categories. As per the data released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI in Faridabad in Haryana was at 397, 385 in Bahadurgarh, 382 in Gurugram, 345 in Kaithal, 336 in Sonipat, 335 in Panipat, 299 in Charkhi Dadri, 268 each in Jind and Hisar, 241 in Ambala and 235 in Kurukshetra.
In Punjab, Amritsar recorded an AQI of 194, while Khanna and Jalandhar had a reading of 173 each, Ludhiana 299, Mandi Gobindgarh 121 and Patiala 240, according to the data.
Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, reported an AQI of 150. An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor', and 401-500 'severe.
Opposition lashes out at AAP govt
The opposition parties in Punjab — Congress and the BJP — on Tuesday lashed out at the AAP led State Government for its failure to check the menace of stubble burning that has led to an alarming increase in pollution levels in the state.
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring criticized the powers that be for leaving the Punjabis to suffocate with the stubble fires, with the “rulers” busy in campaigning in Gujarat; while the BJP asked the AAP to “wake up” from its “deep slumber” over the issue of farm fires. Warring asked the government to spell out its policy on stubble burning. “You have not offered any solution to farmers and now when they are left with no option, you are slapping cases on them”, he pointed out.