New Delhi Around a hundred workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), staged a protest at New Delhi’s Mandi House on Thursday against alleged increase in instances of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana which, they said, contributes to air pollution in Delhi during winter.
The Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress dismissed the AAP’s claim and accused the Delhi government of passing the burden of pollution to neighbouring states, after failing to control local sources of air pollution in the city.
“The situation in Delhi was normal until a few days ago. While there were reports of increasing pollution in all the states across the country continuously, in Delhi, contrary to this, positive steps taken by the AAP government resulted in a 25% reduction in pollution. But as soon as stubble burning started in Haryana and Punjab, pollution levels in Delhi started to spike and the governments of these two states have failed to do anything about it,” Gopal Rai, AAP’s Delhi convener, said.
He said, “Despite the initiatives of the Delhi government to reduce pollution, neither was there support from the Central government nor from the state governments of Haryana and Punjab. Until, both the Centre and the state governments take action against the stubble burning, the protest will continue.”
{{/usCountry}}He said, “Despite the initiatives of the Delhi government to reduce pollution, neither was there support from the Central government nor from the state governments of Haryana and Punjab. Until, both the Centre and the state governments take action against the stubble burning, the protest will continue.”
{{/usCountry}}While Haryana has a coalition government of the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party, the Congress has formed the government in Punjab.
“Stubble burning is definitely an issue, but it has only begun a few days ago. What about Delhi’s bad air quality before that? Who is to be blamed for it? Mr Arvind Kejriwal should first look at the pollution sources within the city and work towards controlling that,” Kirti Azad, Delhi Congress’ campaign in-charge, said.
BJP’s Delhi unit chief, Manoj Tiwari, said, “The chief minister [Kejriwal] thinks that smog in Delhi comes from Punjab and Haryana. He must answer what he has himself done to curb pollution. The pollution is affecting the health of residents of the city. It is the AAP government which is responsible for it.”