Not justified to blame one state for air pollution in Delhi: PPCB official
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had on Saturday issued a notice to the Punjab government over high air pollution levels in New Delhi due to stubble burning by Punjab farmers
The air quality index (AQI) in most of the cities in Punjab remained under ‘satisfactory’ and ‘moderate’ categories, as compared to the national capital, where it was under ‘very poor’ bracket.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had on Saturday issued a notice to the Punjab government over high air pollution levels in New Delhi due to stubble burning by Punjab farmers.
On Sunday, AQI was 77 in Bathinda, 88 in Amritsar and 100 in Khanna. The AQI of Mandi Gobindgarh was recorded to be ‘moderate’ with 167, followed by 136 in Patiala, 124 each in Ropar and Jalandhar, and 108 in Ludhiana.
On the other hand, several parts of New Delhi recorded AQI between 350 and 400, which falls in the ‘very poor’ category.
As per the PPCB’s crop residue burning (CRB) information and management system, 30 cases of stubble burning were reported on Sunday, with a maximum number of nine cases recorded in Sangrur.
However, senior functionaries of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and agriculture department raised questions over the NGT notice to the Punjab government blaming Punjab for rising pollution levels in the national capital region (NCR) due to stubble burning cases post paddy harvest in the state.
“It is not justified to blame one state for air pollution in Delhi at a time when the cases of stubble burning have drastically decreased in Punjab as compared to last year. Moreover, if the air quality of Punjab, where the paddy leftover is burnt, is mostly under moderate limits, then there might be other reasons for air pollution in the NCR,” a senior official of PPCB said.
Meanwhile, Amritsar, which reported the maximum number of stubble burning cases post start of the harvest season, saw only one farm fire on Sunday. In 2021 and 2022, 1,111 and 582 active fire events respectively were reported on October 22.
Punjab has recorded 1,794 fire incidents so far this season. Last year, the number was 5,438 and in 2022, 3,730 cases were recorded during the same period.
PPCB chairman Adarshpal Vig said as per the present scenario, the number of stubble burning cases is completely under control in the state till date.
“Moreover, the AQI level in major parts of the state is under the permissible limit. It was witnessed that a high number of stubble fire incidents were reported initially after the paddy harvest season began, especially in Majha areas, mainly in Amritsar and Tarn Taran but the figures have gradually come down as of now,” he said.
He added that the same was communicated to the NGT that after initial high number of cases, the paddy straw fire incidents are under control now.
Moreover, the daily number of cases reported in the past week is much lower than in the corresponding period in 2022 and 2021, he said.
“The NGT has already been informed about the standard operation procedure adopted by the Punjab government and PPCB to tackle stubble burning especially in the hotspot districts. However, the board and agriculture department have geared up to control any sort of situation in case the number of cases increase in coming days as the figures continue to fluctuate till November 30, when we get the final number of total cases,” he said.
