Top Union ministers and Delhi governments traded blame on Thursday when the city’s air quality was downgraded to “very bad”, a stark replay of how the crisis unfolded in recent years when about 30 Millions of people are exposed to dangerous levels of pollution in the run-up to winter.
Delhi’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) for 24 hours to 4 pm Thursday was 312, according to government data, a level not seen since February. Air quality was similar in Gurugram (311) and slightly worse in Noida (321) and Ghaziabad (322).
One of the two monitoring stations in Greater Noida recorded an AQI of 400, which is at the top of the “severe” category, the highest on the five-point scale for air pollution.
Thursday’s dispute, which later also included comments from Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, began with the Union’s Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, saying that only 4% of the country’s air pollution Delhi is due to agricultural fires in neighboring Punjab states. and Haryana.
Also read: ‘What did the people of Delhi do in the last 15 days?’ Delhi versus Pollution Center
“Stubble burning is contributing only 4% of the load now, 96% of the load (Delhi pollution load) comes from local factors like biomass burning, unpaved roads, dust, construction debris and demolition. CPCB teams will monitor these local factors and present reports to interested authorities immediately, ”he said.
The stance, however, was criticized by Delhi’s Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “Maintaining denial will not help. If burning stubble causes only 4% pollution, why has pollution suddenly increased during the last fortnight? The air was clean before that. It is the same story every year. There has not been a massive jump in any local source of contamination in Delhi in recent days to cause this spike, ”Kejriwal said.
The CM added: “Let us accept that stubble burning causes great pollution every year in North India during this time. And let’s all get together to find a solution sincerely. The blame game and politics have helped no one. People are suffering. I am extremely concerned that pollution will wreak havoc along with Covid-19. “
Javadekar responded to these with his own tweets: “My statement today on air pollution in Delhi has been misinterpreted by a section of the media. Let me clarify, the figures of 4% participation in stubble burning at AQI in Delhi are for this week. It varies from 4 to 40% during peak stubble burning. ”
The Environment Ministry also tweeted the clarification.
“At the same time, we must not deny that there are several local factors (vehicular pollution, non-agricultural biomass burning, dust, geographic and meteorological) that are primarily responsible for the high air pollution during winters in Delhi,” Javadekar said further. late.
The exchange didn’t stop there. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai accused the central government of giving Delhi a “partial” deal.
He said the BJP was acting as a “mouthpiece” for other states where polluting activities such as stubble burning were ongoing, and polluting diesel generator sets and thermal power plants continued to run without any control.
“The Grap (Winter Segment of the Gradual Response Action Plan) would be implemented from today (Thursday) and Delhi was the first state to have issued an order to strictly comply with the ban on diesel generator sets. However, the Haryana government has been writing letters requesting exemptions. The governments of neighboring states have also requested an extension of the deadlines for thermal power plants to install air pollution control equipment. Why should they get extensions? ” he said.
Later in Chandigarh, the Punjab CM said: “In fact, it is Kejriwal who is in denial.” “The fact is that there is absolutely no data to support the claims of the Delhi prime minister,” he added.
Also read: Gopal Rai asks CPCB, Epca to close 11 thermal power plants in Delhi
Similar exchanges took place last year. On November 1, Javadekar accused Kejriwal of “politicizing pollution” after the Delhi CM criticized the Center for not doing enough to reduce agricultural fires. Kejriwal had then asked the Delhi school students to write to the chief ministers of Haryana and Punjab to end the burning of crop residues.
Agricultural fires have been a persistent source of winter pollution for the National Capital Region and much of northern India. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana set fire to the rice stubble left over after harvest, a practice that helps them change their fields to plant winter crops quickly and cheaply.
“Only 50% of the collection is complete so far. The collection and cleaning of the fields will take another 10 to 15 days. The use of straw handling machinery is not very successful because all farmers cannot afford it and there is still some stubble that must be cleaned manually. The government should accept the suggestion of the Supreme Court and pay 100 rupees per quintal to all farmers and then act on farmers still burning stubble, ”said Dharmendra Kumar, spokesperson for Bharatiya Kisan Union.
Last year, there were 55,210 fire points in Punjab and in 2018 there were 50,590 fire points in the state. Since mid-September this year, according to data from the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 5,733 fire incidents have been observed in Punjab and Haryana. This number is more than double the 2,761 observed in the same period last year and the 1,937 observed in 2018.
.
