Sharp increase of Air Quality Index in National Capital a 'serious concern', says Bhupendra Yadav

New Delhi [India], November 3 : Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav on Thursday expressed deep concern over the increasing Air Quality Index of the national capital and said that due to the stubble burning in Punjab, the air quality of NCR has reached to 'severe' category.
Speaking to media, Bhupendra Yadav said, "I have chaired more than 14 consecutive review meetings, after May this year regarding Delhi's Air pollution. In terms of AQI, there is a lot of difference. The situation prevailing for the last two-three days is very worrying. We have worked a lot for the management of stubble burning."
"Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have done more satisfactory work in the area of improving air quality as compared with the last year. However, the situation of stubble burning is worst in Punjab as compared to the last year," he added.
"When I had called the meeting of environment ministers of the country, neither any representative nor any minister had come from the Delhi Government. Two people have come from Punjab, we also took suggestions from all the states. We did not receive any satisfactory implementation of the measures suggested during the meeting. Not only this, if you look carefully, whatever resources provided to Punjab were not used properly," Yadav said.
"I want to say that all the stakeholders will have to work collectively to deal with air pollution. Only then we will be able to deal with this serious situation," he added.
The Union Environment Minister also said that the government's focus is on shifting to cleaner fuels. Biomass fuels are also permitted with stricter emission norms and heavily polluting fuels like coal, LDO etc are banned in industrial applications.
"Commission for Air Quality Management (CIQM) has implemented a Graded Response Action Plan for NCR and adjoining areas to improve Air Quality," he said
"Preventive/restrictive/prohibitive actions under four different stages will be taken. Actions under Stages II, III and IV of the GRAP are to be invoked at least three days in advance of the AQI reaching the projected levels of that stage, based on the forecast.
"Adverse meteorological and climatic conditions coupled with episodic events like paddy stubble burning, MSW burning and bursting of crackers prompted invoking of Stage-I, II and III of the graph on October 5, 2022, October 10, 2022, and October 28, 2022, respectively, based on AQI forecasts," Bhupendra Yadav said.
Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday attacked Aam Aadmi Party over Punjab farm fires and said that as of today, a state run by the AAP government has seen over a 19 per cent rise in farm fires over 2021.
Blaming AAP for rising pollution in the national capital, he said, "there is no doubt over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber."
"Sample this: As of today, Punjab, a state run by the AAP government, has seen an over 19 per cent rise in farm fires over 2021. Haryana has seen a 30.6 per cent drop. Just today, Punjab saw 3,634 fires. There is no doubt about who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber," Yadav tweeted.
Earlier on Wednesday, the pollution in and around Delhi reached an alarming level as the air quality index (AQI) has been recorded as very poor.