Toxic Delhi air: BJP asks Kejriwal, Punjab CM to 'urgently' address farm fires

New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) The BJP on Tuesday sounded an alarm over possible farm fires in Punjab in the coming months and their detrimental impact on Delhi’s air quality, asking AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal to “urgently” address the issue.

Amit Malviya, in charge of the BJP's National Information and Technology Department, 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.”

Malviya’s remark comes at a time when the former Delhi CM Kejriwal and his party’s government in the agrarian state have claimed that Punjab farm fires have very little role in deteriorating Delhi’s air quality in winters.

The BJP and the AAP have been involved in a verbal duel 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.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta recently slammed the previous AAP government, alleging a scam worth crores of rupees in its scheme to use bio-decomposer to dispose of farm waste in the city.

In 2018, when Kejriwal was the Chief Minister in Delhi, he had slammed stubble burning in Punjab for the spike in Delhi’s air pollution starting in October.

Five years later, when the AAP came to power in Punjab, Kejriwal claimed that effective measures had been taken by the state government to control stubble burning, reducing the possibility of farm fires in that state contributing to pollution in Delhi.

Last year, the Supreme Court pulled up the Punjab and Haryana governments for half-hearted attempts to stamp out farm fires, calling them “mere eyewash”.

The apex court also questioned the state governments over the lack of prosecution of farmers violating the law banning stubble burning.

The top court also rapped the Union government over "toothless" environmental protection laws, observing that laws meant to control pollution, specifically the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) Act of 2021, had been passed sans the administrative machinery to ensure implementation.

On its part, the BJP-led Delhi government has decided to conduct a focused study on ‘smog‑eating’ photocatalytic coatings that can be applied on roads, concrete and tiles to reduce NO2 and harmful hydrocarbons.

Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, in a recent order, directed the Environment Department to work on an action plan to strengthen the city’s protective shield against air pollution through technology-driven interventions and scientific validation.

“Delhi will evaluate and adopt the best of proven photocatalytic technologies, prioritising safety, sustainability and measurable impact to deliver cleaner air faster,” said Sirsa, amid the signing of an MoU with IIT-Kanpur to conduct a trial for artificial rain.

Sirsa said, “Delhi’s fight against pollution is personal — for every child, every senior, every worker — and we are putting simple, safe, science-based tools on the ground, measuring results openly, and scaling up quickly wherever families can feel the difference in the air they breathe.”

--IANS

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