On November 3, the Air Quality Index of Delhi NCR ranged between 400 to 900, that fall under the hazardous category. Amid National Capital being turned into a gas chamber, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have been doing pressers after presser blaming the central government and neighbouring states for the problem.
I request the UP & Haryana govts to form regional special task force to reduce air pollution in areas adjoining Delhi like Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad & Noida. The pollution problem is not the state’s problem. It happens due to the air system that develops: Delhi Min Gopal Rai pic.twitter.com/FOd3nUJnkk
— ANI (@ANI) November 2, 2022
However, the Centre’s panels on air pollution said in its assessment that the AAP-led Punjab Government took negligible steps to control stubble burning. The Centre pointed out the bio-decomposers’ field experiments were successful in UP, Haryana and Delhi. No efforts were made in Punjab by the state government to employ the technique for stubble management.
Furthermore, while Haryana and Uttar Pradesh opted for bio-decomposer usage across 5,00,000 acres and 138,000 acres, respectively, Punjab used it only in 7,500 acres. Nurture Farms used another bio decomposer in another 250,000 acres in the state through a CSR initiative.
The panel added that not only bio-decomposer but also the government failed to deploy residue management machines effectively. There was inadequate implementation of public sensitisation over the matter. The Centre might take up the matter with Punjab Government soon.
Spike in stubble burning incidents in Punjab
As per the data available, the stubble-burning incidents increased by 33.5% between September 15 and November 1 compared to last year. Last year there were 15,065 incidents reported. In 2022, 17,846 such incidents were reported. According to ET, in 2021, 1796 incidents of stubble burning were reported on November 1. In 2022, it increased to 1,846 incidents. Notably, 40% of the crop in Punjab has not been harvested yet, and more such incidents are expected to get recorded in the coming weeks.
Data suggests that 70% of the farm fires were reported in Amritsar, Sangrur, Firozpur, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Patiala and Tarn Taran districts. These districts were red-flagged in 2021 as well.
Haryana and UP recorded a decline in stubble-burning incidents
Data shows that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are working extensively to reduce stubble-burning incidents. In 2021, Haryana reported 3,038 stubble-burning incidents. However, this year only 2,083 such incidents were reported marking a decline of 24%. In UP’s region around NCR, 53 stubble-burning incidents were reported in 2021, which has been reduced to 33 this year.
AAP blamed the Centre for not funding cash incentives
Notably, the AAP-led Punjab government had approached the Centre to fund the cash incentives for farmers (for not burning stubble) that were rejected. As a result, the AAP government has put the blame on the Centre for turning Delhi into a gas chamber. Contrary to the AAP’s allegations, the Centre’s assessment of the situation exposed the ineffectiveness of the Punjab government in deploying 120,000 crop residue machines available at the state’s disposal.
The Centre added that the monitoring and enforcement of the stubble management techniques at the field level were missing in Punjab. Notably, the Centre has sent Rs 1,347 crores to Punjab in the last five financial years, including 2022-23, to reduce stubble-burning incidents. However, instead of using the resources effectively, the Punjab government is not blaming the Centre and neighbouring states for its own mess.
