Chandigarh, Nov 3 Punjab AAP leader Baltej Pannu on Tuesday slammed the BJP for allegedly blaming state’s farmers for pollution in Delhi while “conveniently ignoring” the efforts made by the Bhagwant Mann government and farmers to manage paddy stubble.
Attacking Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Pannu said BJP leaders are making Punjab’s farmers “scapegoats” instead of addressing the multiple sources of pollution in the national capital.
Sirsa on Tuesday slammed the AAP government over the issue of stubble burning.
Pointing out that Parliament’s data recorded an 80 per cent decline in stubble-burning incidents in Punjab last year and that the Mann government has deployed more than 21,000 crop residue management machines, Pannu challenged Sirsa and other BJP leaders to visit Punjab and witness the ground reality instead of “spreading propaganda”.
The Punjab AAP media in-charge also reminded the Centre that it had refused to share the financial burden of stubble management despite the Mann government’s offer, asserting that BJP leaders must answer for Delhi’s pollution instead of shifting the blame onto Punjab’s farmers.
Speaking to reporters here, Pannu said, “Even before the paddy harvesting season had properly begun, certain leaders had started running a campaign to defame Punjab for Delhi’s pollution.”
“How can smoke from Punjab supposedly cross Haryana and reach Delhi through some imaginary pipeline so quickly? BJP leaders are conveniently ignoring the multiple sources of pollution in the national capital. Several reports and even discussions in Parliament have established that stubble burning is not the only cause of Delhi’s pollution,” he said.
The AAP leader said farmers are increasingly taking advantage of government subsidies ranging from 50 per cent to 80 per cent to purchase crop residue management equipment.
Many farmers and private operators are also renting out machinery, making it accessible to more cultivators, he stated.
Across major highways connecting Zirakpur to Bathinda, Chandigarh to Ludhiana, Mohali to Sirhind and on the Amritsar highway, large quantities of paddy stubble can be seen collected and compressed into bales. These bales are being transported to industries and used as raw material rather than being burnt in fields, said Pannu.
Taking a dig at Sirsa, Pannu asserted, “BJP leaders must first examine the facts before holding Punjab responsible for Delhi’s pollution.”
“I challenge them to travel from Delhi through Haryana into Punjab and compare the Air Quality Index (AQI) at different locations. The AQI figures show that Delhi’s AQI was around 350, Haryana’s was between 250 and 300, while Punjab’s was around 125. How can Punjab be blamed for Delhi’s pollution when the pollution levels in the two states along the route are already significantly higher?
“Why is Haryana, despite having fewer stubble-management machines than Punjab, not being subjected to the same scrutiny? Travelling from Punjab to Delhi takes at least four to five hours by road. The simplistic claim that smoke from Punjab directly reaches Delhi is an attempt to mislead people rather than an evidence-based explanation,” he said.
(PTI News)
