Toxic Delhi air: BJP slams Punjab CM for not helping farmers curb stubble burning

New Delhi, Nov 3 The BJP on Monday accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann of failure to help farmers find real solutions to stubble burning that causes a toxic haze in Delhi every year.

Amit Malviya, in charge of the BJP's National Information and Technology Department, described the toxic haze in the national capital as the “curse of Arvind Kejriwal” and accused Punjab CM Mann of showing greater interest in “serving his masters in Delhi” than taking actions to prevent the choking of Delhi residents.

“Every year, the same story repeats — Delhi gasps for breath while the AAP government in Punjab turns a blind eye to stubble burning. If only Bhagwant Mann had focused on helping farmers find real solutions instead of serving his masters in Delhi or deleting his own videos, Delhi-NCR wouldn’t be choking today,” said Malviya in a post on X.

“The curse of Arvind Kejriwal has engulfed Delhi in a toxic haze,” he said.

Malviya has criticised the AAP-led Punjab government on several earlier occasions for its failure to check crop burning that deteriorates air quality across north India, including Delhi, during winter.

In September, the BJP leader sounded an alarm over possible farm fires in Punjab and their detrimental impact on Delhi’s air quality, asking Kejriwal to “urgently” address the issue.

Malviya wrote on X, “Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann must urgently address the issue of farm fires before Delhi and the entire NCR start choking again. Public health and clean air cannot wait. Responsibility lies with the AAP.”

His remarks came at a time when Kejriwal and his party’s government in the agrarian state claimed that Punjab farm fires have very little role in deteriorating Delhi’s air quality in winters.

The BJP and the AAP have been at loggerheads for almost a decade over Delhi’s toxic air and its link to farm fires in Punjab, with the BJP accusing Kejriwal of changing his stance on the link between farm fires and Delhi’s toxic air.

Last month, strategies to curb air pollution caused by stubble burning in Delhi and other northern states were discussed in New Delhi at a meeting of state agriculture ministers with Union Agriculture and Environment Ministers and officials.

The meeting, held at Krishi Bhavan and chaired by Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, also discussed the way forward to promote better utilisation of paddy residue and enhance awareness, financial support, monitoring, crop management, and diversification among farmers, said an official statement.

Other participants included Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Haryana Agriculture Minister Shyam Singh Rana, Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi and Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

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