With winters knocking on the doors, Delhi will face double threats — dust, farm fire pollution and corona making the lungs weak. The Delhi Government has set a strategy to deal with perineal winter pollution identifying 39 hotspots/ red zones deploying anti-smog gun and joined hands with PUSA agriculture institute to deter farm fire issue.
As Air Quality Index ( AQI ) in the national Capital marked 183 micro cubic per gram on Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai assured to reduce dust pollution with anti-smog guns.
Anand Vihar, Rohini are top areas where dust pollution is major threat for people, surprisingly, the AQI of both zones was marked above 250 Micro Gram Per Cubic.
Rai said “Our first target is to reduce pollution due to dust and around 39 sites have been identified where anti-smog guns will be used,” adding,”Anti-smog guns have been deployed at large construction sites in the national capital as part of the measures being taken to control pollution.”
Amid rising concerns regarding air pollution in the national capital and neighbouring states, farmers in Haryana and Punjab continued to burn stubble in their fields.
Raising pollution issues, Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP ) MLA, Raghav Chadha said first week of October witnessed stubble burning increase of nine fold in Punjab and three fold in Haryana in comparison to last year. He also said that states of Punjab and Haryana are guilty of criminal negligence towards the matter of air pollution and have not taken any serious comprehensive steps to stop stubble burning. Citing the Centre's launch of the ambitious National Clean Air Plan (NCAP), and how Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a budget of Rs 4,400 Crore for the NCAP.
Chadha said, " Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the central government will spend Rs 4,400 Crore for a clean air plan. I want to ask the central government where is this money? The Aam Aadmi Party wants to know why the central Government has not given this money to the farmers. We also want to know why the central government can’t come up with a suitable plan to stop stubble burning."
He also said, "Today I want to tell you that this year the stubble burning started one month before October 15. In the first week of October in Punjab, the stubble burning has increased nine-fold and in Haryana three-fold.” In the first week of October 606 cases of stubble burning were reported from Punjab and 137 cases in Haryana. We want to request the Supreme Court-appointed watchdog to take note of the matter and to take stern action against these states. The estimation is that nearly 35 million tonnes stubble will be burnt this year combining Punjab and Haryana."
Chadha also said that one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about combating air pollution, but on the hand the BJP government of Haryana has disregarded the PM's advice. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party demands that the Supreme Court-appointed EPCA ought to take stringent action against Punjab and Haryana for neglecting the stubble burning issue.
He said, "According to a source apportionment study published by TERI, it was noted that 70% of Delhi's pollution is caused by neighbouring states--stubble burning being one key reason of this pollution. Last year, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed that stubble burning causes 45% of Delhi’s air pollution. Stubble burning generally happens in Punjab, Haryana and in some parts of Uttar Pradesh. Every year, this criminal act makes Delhi a gas chamber. Starting from the Supreme Court, EPCA, the Central Government and various state governments have repeatedly requested the guilty states to take some serious actions against the stubble burning, but to no avail."
Last year in Punjab, 20 million tonnes paddy was generated, and 9.8 million tonnes of paddy was burnt. In Haryana, 60 million tonnes of paddy were generated, and 1.23 million tonnes were burnt. As per the data, 11 million tonnes of paddy were burnt combining both the states.
“One on hand, Kejriwal is working relentlessly to combat the air pollution of Delhi. He has already announced a seven-point action plan to combat air pollution. With the help of PUSA Institute,Kejriwal is trying to build up Bio-decomposer technique by which stubble burning can be avoided. On the other hand, you have Punjab and Haryana, who are showing criminal negligence and dereliction of duty over this issue. University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute has noted that if Delhi’s air pollution improves then the citizens’ life span will increase 9.4 years. This is following the WHO standard; but if we follow the Indian national standard, even then the life span will increase for 6.5 years,” AAP targeted the neighboring states.