Thatch burning in Delhi and its neighboring states makes the air unsafe in parts of northern India.
New Delhi:
As Delhi’s air quality entered the red zone today with the number of farm fires quadrupling from last year, Delhi’s Chief Deputy Minister Manish Sisodia, attacked the central government saying that all of northern India should pay for its “inaction on the issue of air pollution”.
“Pollution and stubble burning are not only problems for Delhi, but it affects the whole of northern India. It is unfortunate that the central government took no action during the year, and now the whole country is going to pay for it, “party leader Aam Aadmi said.
It is only in the past three months that everyone starts to show concern about air pollution and stubble burning, Sisodia said, adding that the Delhi government is constantly working to reduce air pollution in the nation’s capital.
He also appealed to the anti-pollution body appointed by the Supreme Court to seek his intervention. “Doesn’t an institution like the EPCA succeed in doing the work of central and state governments either?” Sisodia asked.
Mr Sisodia’s comments come as Delhi’s skies turned gray and the air quality index climbed to 304 to enter the “very poor” zone – the worst since the start of this year.
This year, 2,873 stubble burning incidents were reported on farms in the Punjab, data shared by the Punjab Remote Sensing Center in Ludhiana shows.
This is almost four times the number of farm fires reported during this period last year.
From September 21 to October 12 of last year, 755 stubble burning incidents were reported in Punjab compared to 510 in 2018. This year, 2,873 such incidents were reported during the same period: Anil Sood, head of the ACM division, Punjab Remote Sensing Center, Ludhiana pic.twitter.com/QPNCGK4aiJ
– ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2020
Health experts have warned that severe air pollution could have a negative impact on the country’s fight against the coronavirus.
The warning had come amid reports of farmers burning more rice stubble this year to protest the three contentious farm laws, seen as anti-farmers.
Against this background, there have been reports that villagers in Haryana and Punjab have driven out government officials tasked with dissuading farmers from starting farm fires.
“Where the stubble is burned, farmers also suffer,” Sisodia said.
The comment comes as Delhi has started using a locally grown chemical which, when sprinkled on paddy stubble, breaks it down, turning it into manure.
Recently Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to inform him that Delhi has started using this chemical and is proposing its use in all states to distract from the use of expensive machinery that small farmers can hardly afford.
The move would also eliminate the need for subsidies, Kejriwal wrote in his letter.
On October 1, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadkar met with environment ministers from Delhi and its four neighboring states to discuss measures taken to reduce air pollution, and allocated 1,700 crore rupees to control farm fires.
