Centre discusses pollution plan with Punjab, Haryana, other states
Union environment minister says six advisories and over 40 directions were issued between July and September
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Representatives of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi met on Thursday to discuss the preparedness ahead of the harvest season when farm fires emerge as a major contributor to winter pollution in the region.
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said the meeting mainly focussed on the prevention of the fires, which are caused when farmers set alight paddy stubble left after harvesting. He added between July and September, the ministry issued six advisories and over 40 directions related to air pollution prevention via the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas on all emission sources— industries, construction, and demolition activities, etc--and how to control them.
Yadav said he has spoken to Punjab and Delhi’s chief ministers, and they assured him they will do all they can to prevent air pollution.
He referred to stubble burning in the neighbouring states and said the main issue is that there is a very small window between the time farmers harvest paddy and when they begin sowing winter crop. “They are using a bio enzyme developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institute...which helps decompose stubble in around 30 to 35 days.”
Yadav said he cannot say how much air pollution will reduce this winter, but he was hopeful that there will be an improvement as many schemes were being implemented to deal with the problem.
But groups representing farmers said they have an even shorter window this time. “There was heavy rain in many parts of Punjab today also. Because of monsoon rains, harvesting and stubble disposal is unlikely for the next 15 to 20 days,” Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar attended the meeting in his capacity as the state’s environment minister. Delhi’s environment minister, Gopal Rai, his Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan counterparts, Dara Singh Chauhan and Sukhram Bishnoi, also attended the meeting. Special chief secretary Anirudh Tiwari represented Punjab at the meeting.
Khattar assures Centre of effective steps
The Haryana government has set up 64MW capacity biomass power projects having capacity to consume 2.37 lakh MT paddy straw, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar told the Centre on Thursday.
Under installation are another six 60.35MW production capacity biomass power projects with a capacity to utilise 6.4 lakh MT paddy straw and one compressed biogas plant of 12.5 tonnes per day capacity which can use 40,000 MT paddy straw.
Khattar was speaking in a meeting chaired by Union minister of environment Bhupender Yadav to discuss an action plan for improvement of air quality in the NCR ahead of the approaching winter season when air pollution increases due to stubble burning. The chief minister said a project on ethanol production is also under installation in which two lakh MT paddy straw will be utilised.
Listing out a number of steps the state government plans to take to curb stubble burning, Khatttar said: “With all these efforts, we are hopeful that we will be able to prevent crop residue burning this season. Besides the stubble burning issue, the state is also preparing itself to handle air pollution issues arising every winter.”
He assured the Centre that Haryana is fully geared up to handle the issue of agricultural crop residue burning and air pollution issues ahead of winter in state. Monitoring of active fire locations (AFLS) has already been started from September 15 by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board through HARSAC, following the standard protocol approved by the CAQM.
Till date, not even a single incident of farm fire has been identified in Haryana, he added.
Delhi urges neighbours to switch public transit to CNG, ban crackers
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Thursday suggested that the neighbouring states should consider implementing a complete ban on firecrackers, and shift all public vehicles to CNG for a robust anti-pollution plan for the national capital region.
Rai also stressed on the need to promote the use of bio-decomposers by farmers to tackle crop stubble, and prevent them from burning it. After participating in a meeting convened by the Union environment ministry on Thursday, Rai told reporters that Delhi’s air pollution crisis cannot be resolved in isolation, and it will need cooperation from all neighbouring states.
Delhi has been at the centre of India’s air pollution crisis for years now, which particularly worsens every winter season. The landlocked demography of the national capital also puts it at a disadvantage, as winds carrying pollutants from neighbouring states also impacts its air. Experts have time and again pointed out that sharing a common air shed with the Indo-gangetic Plains, the issue of Delhi’s pollution cannot be tackled in isolation, and the governments will have to come up with a holistic plan to bring down emissions in the entire region.
The stubble fires in the neighbouring agrarian states of Punjab and Haryana are a case in point. Every year, when farmers burn stubble after harvest, the smoke carries dangerous particles measuring less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) to Delhi. Last year, according to Safar -- an agency under the Union ministry of earth sciences, the contribution of farm fires to concentration of PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres) in Delhi’s air reached up to 40% in November. Every winter, Delhi’s air quality nosedives with pollution levels reaching emergency levels on several days.