Chandigarh, November 3
Putting the AAP government in Delhi and Punjab and the BJP government in the centre in the dock following the air quality deterioration in Delhi, Senior Congress Leader and Punjab’s leader of the opposition (LoP), Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday said that both AAP and BJP are responsible for making Delhites go through this annual environmental crisis. However, both the BJP and AAP governments were working overtime to prove as if the farmers were primarily responsible for the air pollution in Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR) and the adjoining areas.
Bajwa said that there seems to have been zero coordination between the BJP government in the Centre and AAP government in Punjab and Delhi in addressing this menace. “Every day even the media is publishing reports on the number of stubble burning cases occurring in Punjab and elsewhere as if farmers are solely responsible for the poor quality of air”.
Bajwa said both the centre and the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab have failed to abide by the directions of the supreme court which clearly said farmers must be paid at the rate of Rs. 100 per quintal to manage stubble in the fields.
“I would like to ask both the union agricultural minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Delhi and Punjab Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann why have they completely failed to follow the directions of the supreme court”, asks LoP Bajwa.
He said that it was again in the apex court that the Narendra Modi government and Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi were told loud and clear that stubble burning in Punjab merely caused 4% to 10% of pollution in Delhi and the adjoining areas. The supreme court said the rest of the pollution was caused by vehicular and industrial pollution in Delhi. Yet both the BJP government in the centre and the AAP government in Punjab and Haryana are silent on this.
Bajwa said Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann must answer the farmers in Punjab about what stopped him from paying Rs. 2500 per acre cash incentive to them for managing the paddy stubble. Similarly, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana was equally responsible for its failure to compensate farmers adequately for managing the stubble of the Paddy crop.
Bajwa said it was a fundamental right of every citizen of this country to get clean and quality oxygen to breathe and survive in the world. “However, both the centre as well as Delhi and Punjab governments have even failed to ensure quality breathing air for the common man and are being forced to live in virtually gas chambers that have been causing severe respiratory problems. Senior citizens and the children are the worst affected”, added Bajwa.
