Capt Amarinder Singh slams Kejriwal after release of data on Delhi pollution, stubble burning

Chandigarh [India], October 15 : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following the release of data on Delhi pollution and stubble burning, asking him to stop diverting attention from his failure and protect the environment of the national capital.
According to a press release, hours after Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that stubble burning contributes to only 4 per cent of PM 2.5 pollution in NCR, with the rest caused by local factors, Singh slammed his Delhi counterpart for refusing to accept the results of comprehensive studies on the issue.
Singh said that in fact, it was Kejriwal who was in denial, while reacting to the Delhi chief minister's remark about 'being in denial not helping'. If Kejriwal is serious about addressing Delhi's crisis, he should stop being in denial immediately and get down to the task of finding solutions in right earnest, he added.
The Chief Minister also alleged that Kejriwal had been spreading misinformation on the issue with the sole agenda of keeping Delhiites in the dark about the actual situation, which his government had failed miserably to handle over the years.
He further said it was obvious that Kejriwal, who had been blaming Punjab's farm fires for the horrendously poor AQI levels in the national capital for the past several years, was taking refuge in brazen falsehoods to divert public attention from the AAP government's total failure to control the environmental situation in Delhi.
"Even today, the skies in Punjab are clear and the AQI levels much better than those in Delhi," noted Singh.
He further added that while his government was doing its best to reduce stubble burning problem in order to cleanse the air completely of every single pollutant, the farmers, unfortunately, were facing a massive problem in managing paddy straw in the absence of financial aid for the purpose.
According to the release, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), in a research paper based on data for 2018 and 2019, has found that Delhi's pollution is localised and not attributable to the farm fires in Punjab or the NCR. It pointed out that AQI for Punjab was much better than in Delhi.
Earlier today, Javadekar said stubble burning contributes only 4 per cent of pollutants in the environment of Delhi.
"Rest is due to local factors like dust, construction and biomass burning So, 50 teams of the Central Pollution Control Board will be deployed for inspection in Delhi-NCR from today," he said.
Meanwhile, air quality deteriorated further in the national capital on Thursday.
The Air Quality Index was at 366 in ITO, 309 in R K Puram, 313 in Anand Vihar, and 339 in Wazirpur, all four in "very poor" category, according to Delhi Pollution Control Committee data.