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‘Punjab stubble burning turned Delhi to gas chamber,’ says LG. Mann responds
The Air Quality Index in Delhi has dropped to severe plus category.
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fkStubble burning in Punjab has once again turned Delhi into a “gas chamber”, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has told Bhagwant Mann in a letter as the national capital sees the AQI (Air Quality Index) going from bad to worse. On Friday afternoon, the AQI at the city’s ITI Jahangirpuri station was in the “hazardous” category. Experts suggest avoiding outdoor exertion when the air quality drops to this level.
The Delhi LG - in his letter - said that “people of Delhi are suffering for no fault of theirs” as he urged the Punjab Chief Minister to take urgent steps to control stubble burning. “It is sad that volume of Parali fires (farm fires) in Punjab has increased since 2021,” he wrote in a tweet, as he insisted that farmers should be made “willing partners in defeating the deadly pollution in Delhi-NCR.”
Between October 24 and November 2, the Lieutenant Governor said, Punjab saw a 19 per cent surge in farm fires. Of 3,825 cases reported from six states, 3,634 cases were reported from Punjab alone, the Delhi LG pointed out, adding that amid the “health emergency”, the national capital has witnessed a manifold increase in hospital visits and children and elderly are also among those affected. “The existing situation is violative of fundamental rights of citizens.”
Mann, however, responded in a sharp tweet: “LG Sahib, you are stopping the work by the elected government of Delhi. Stopped the "Red Light On, Car Off" campaign and are doing politics by writing to me? Politics is not right on such a serious subject,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Earlier, at a joint briefing, Mann - along with Arvind Kejriwal - said the AAP government takes responsibility for farm fires in Punjab. He also urged the central government to intervene. Both the leaders further pointed that six months were not enough for the AAP government - which took charge earlier this year - to tackle the issue.
The Delhi Chief Minister also insisted that “blame game” should not be done on the “sensitive matter”.
