As stubble burning rises, AAP says it ’cannot enforce’ Punjab govt’s pollution control plan

Stubble burning has once again become a political flashpoint with the Delhi government calling for a minister-level meeting on Saturday. Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the city-state was “spraying bio-decomposer for the stubble produced in Delhi” and remained unable to enforce the Punjab government's pollution control plan within its boundaries.

“Punjab's plan cannot be made in Delhi. Delhi's plan is made for Delhi, so we are spraying Bio-decomposer for the stubble produced in Delhi. The Punjab government is making its own plan to reduce stubble in Punjab,” he insisted.

The AAP leader noted that there had been “a lot of positive results” in the past two years with stubble burning incidents reducing by more than 50%. Rai said that solutions to stubble burning also required the active involvement of other neighbouring states — Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan — as well as the Central government.

“The central government needs to be active in this…Every time before the pollution in winter, the central government used to hold a joint meeting of environment ministers. This time it has not been called yet, it is our request that the minister-level meeting be called soon so that everyone can be aware of the preparations going on,” he urged.

The remarks also came less than a day after the Supreme Court of India rapped the Commission for Air Quality Management over its failure to curb air pollution due to crop residue burning. A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih stressed the need to ensure that stubble-burning alternative equipment are used at the grassroots level and directed the panel to file a better compliance report.

Members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee meanwhile urged the government to come up with a permanent solution on the stubble-burning issue.

“No farmer wants to burn stubble but they are helpless. Preparing one's field (for the next crop) is very expensive...The government invents new machines every year and the machines from the previous year become metal waste. Farmers have to procure machines every year, there is no solution to this. The government should come up with a permanent solution to this stubble-burning issue,” Gurbachan Singh Chhaba told ANI.

(With inputs from agencies)