Delhi, Punjab take responsibility for farm fires
New Delhi, November 4
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann today took responsibility for stubble-burning in the border state and promised to curb the practice by next winter amid alarming levels of air pollution in the Capital and its surrounding areas.
Kejriwal said air pollution in winters was not a “Delhi-specific problem” as it affected entire northern India, and that there should be no blame game on the issue. He also urged the Centre to take steps to prevent straw burning, adding that it was wrong to single out farmers for this.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar followed it up by saying that stubble-burning was “not a political issue” even as he asked state governments to work together to curb it. “Despite the Centre providing funds and machines to states, rising stubble-burning incidents remain a cause for concern,” Tomar said, appealing the governments of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi to take remedial steps.
At a joint press conference with Mann, Kejriwal said, “We admit ‘parali’ (straw) is being put on fire in Punjab, but farmers are not responsible for it. The farmers need a solution. They will stop burning ‘parali’ the day they have a solution.”
Kejriwal claimed the air quality in several cities in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar was in the ‘severe’ or ‘very poor’ category. “We have governments in Punjab and Delhi. This is not the time for pointing fingers, blame game or name-calling. Politics over such a sensitive issue does not produce any solutionhellip;. And people need solutions,” the Delhi CM said.
Mann said the AAP government in Punjab had only a few months to address the problem. He promised the issue would be brought under control by next November. “There were mafias operating that had to be dealt with,” said Mann. He also claimed that two proposals sent to the Centre—cash incentives to farmers and involving power-generating companies—were rejected.
Mann said the farmers in Punjab did not want to burn ‘parali’ as it also affected them and their children.
He said the Punjab Government had deployed 1.20 lakh machines to bury stubble in the fields and an app was developed for farmers to fetch these.
Speaking at an event on ‘Pusa decomposer’, Tomar said there was more discussion on “politics” surrounding stubble-burning than its impact on land and the advisable steps farmers should take. “For stubble management, the Centre has provided Rs 3,138 crore to four states since 2018-19 and two lakh machines have been made available. Of this, more than Rs 1,400 crore has been given to Punjab, Rs 900 crore to Haryana, Rs 713 crore to Uttar Pradesh and Rs 6-7 crore to Delhi,” he said,” said Tomar. He lauded UP and Haryana for their “good work”.
Earlier, BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari and Sambit Patra alleged that farm fires had increased 34 per cent during the AAP tenure.
Schools shut
Primary schools in Delhi closed
50% Delhi Govt staff to work from home
Private offices asked to follow suit
Staggered timings for markets, offices likely
Odd-even car scheme under consideration
CAQM directive to 10 districts
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Friday directed the DCs of 10 districts — Amritsar | Barnala | Bathinda | Ferozepur | Jalandhar | Kapurthala | Ludhiana | Sangrur | Tarn Taran | Patiala where more than 1,000 farm fires have been reported — to focus on the implementation of the action plan.
NHRC summons Chief Secys
Alarmed over the rise in pollution in Delhi-NCR, the NHRC has asked the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi to appear before it on November 10 to discuss the matter, an official statement said on Friday. The NHRC said the chief secretaries were expected to inform it “on the steps taken to stop stubble-burning”.
