| Sarkar AAP ki hain, air pollution bhuljaiye | | Kejriwal silent on Punjab farm fires | |
Agencies
Haryana, Oct 22: Amidst farm fires raging in Punjab, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, is maintaining silence. When farm fires used to rage in Punjab earlier, Kejriwal used to be the first one to raise, hue and cry over these fires. Haryana's Home Minister Anil Vij has questioned Kejriwal’s silence over farm fires raising air pollution levels in the National Capital Region (NCR). But this time around Kejriwal is quiet as his own party is in power in Punjab. The pollution levels would increase with bursting of crackers during Diwali season. With several states involved, it has been difficult to fix accountability over the matter, which has also been discussed in the Supreme Court.
Taking a dig, the Haryana minister suggested that the Delhi CM is not blaming Punjab anymore because the state now has the AAP government, led by Bhagwant Mann. "While Kejriwal used to speak about the stubble burning issue earlier, this time, he has not yet spoke," Vij said.
According to the BJP leader, “the AAP is not doing anything about the issue since they have their government in Punjab."
Many people in Punjab are of the opinion that the state government has not taken adequate steps to prevent farm fires.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav - during an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue of crop residue burning in Delhi-NCR - had expressed concerns that the Punjab government has not been able to take coordinated actions to contain farm fires.
It’s in place to mention here that Punjab has been provided with a sufficient number of equipment and farm machinery and adequate funds, yet there has not been sufficient progress in implementation of the action plan.
According to estimates, Punjab and Haryana generate around 27 million tonnes of paddy straw a year, and out of this around 6.4 million tonnes are not managed. Punjab reported 71,304 farm fires between September 15 and November 30 last year and 83,002 farm fires in the corresponding period in 2020. |
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