Delhi blame game over air pollution intensifies

The blame game between the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP on the pollution crisis intensified on Saturday even as Delhi remained gripped by the crisis of hazardous air quality. The AAP blamed the BJP-governed Haryana for the crisis faced by people in the national capital, while BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it was high time to stop the blame game and initiate measures to protect people.

He alleged that the ”callous and frivolous attitude” of the Kejriwal government was responsible for the annual affair of toxic air quality in the city during winters. Targeting the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said ”it has done nothing for stubble management. If the Khattar government wishes, we can send our experts from Punjab who can guide them on where machines are needed for stubble disposal.” She said that out of the 52 most polluted districts in the country, 20 are in Haryana. Even Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath complained that his eyes were itching when he arrived in Ghaziabad, Kakkar said and claimed the polluted air is coming from Haryana.

”The Delhi government believes in taking problems head-on, which is why monitoring is done at 40 locations, but the Haryana government is not doing the same,” she said. In Punjab, there has been a 50-67 per cent reduction in stubble burning incidents, even though the state’s geographical area where paddy is grown is double as compared to Haryana, the AAP leader said.

”Most of pollution in Delhi comes from Haryana because the epicentre of stubble burning in Punjab is 500 kilometers away, while it’s only 129 kilometers in case of Haryana,” she claimed. Delhi BJP secretary Harish Khurana trained guns at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying he was busy with ”political tourism” in Chhattisgarh at a time when people needed him in Delhi.

Khurana claimed that official data shows the incidents of stubble burning in Punjab were far too more as compared to Haryana. ”There were 1,921 incidents of ’parali’ (stubble) burning in Punjab on November 1 while Haryana registered 1,296 farm fires in entire October,” he claimed.

He said Kejriwal who was touring with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in poll-bound states should ask him to contain farm fires in his state because people in Delhi are choking. A thick toxic haze lingered over the city for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday, with doctors expressing concerns that air pollution is causing an increase in respiratory and eye problems among children and the elderly.

With inputs from News18