With Punjab recording the highest daily agricultural fire in two years on Thursday, stubble burning is once again becoming a major political issue, even as the national capital succumbs to no shortage of incidents. is visible.
Around 2,700 farm fires broke out in Punjab on Thursday, a significant increase compared to the figures for the same day in the last two years. In 2020, 241 cases were registered, while last year there were over 2,500 farm fires. Along with the increase in the incidents of farm fires, the AQI level in Delhi continued to deteriorate and reach the ‘severe’ category.
As before, with no solution, the political parties entered into slugfests with each other. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal accused the Center of “wrongly targeting” farmers of Punjab over the fire in fields, while “ignoring similar incidents from UP and Haryana”.
But the opposition in Punjab pulled up the AAP government on the issue. Blaming the AAP government in Delhi and Punjab and the BJP government at the Center for the deteriorating air quality in Delhi, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Pratap Singh Bajwa accused both the parties of again making the residents of Delhi suffering from severe pollution levels. charged up.
Bajwa alleged zero coordination between the BJP government at the Center and the AAP governments in Punjab and Delhi to deal with the problem.
Sangrur, the home district of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, continued to top the list of fires for the fourth day, with 452 incidents reported. This season alone, more than 24,000 stubble burning cases have been reported, amid concerns that the figure may touch an all-time high.
Hitting out at the AAP leadership for its hypocrisy on the issue, former MP and BJP leader Sunil Jakhar has said that this duplicity will hardly surprise anyone.
“The AAP government in Punjab has miserably failed to evolve a strategy to deal with the issue affecting public health,” Jakhar said.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Jakhar said that till last year, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal was criticizing the then Congress-led Punjab government and farmers for burning stubble to blame.
“This year when he has formed the government in Punjab, his stand has changed very easily,” he said. “The Modi government had already provided funds to Punjab for machines for stubble management, but the state government did not even bother to ensure proper utilization of these funds. The farmers were left with no option but to burn the stubble.
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