Capt slams Kejri for blaming Punjab for Delhi pollution

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday ridiculed the claim of his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal that stubble burning in Punjab was responsible for high levels of pollution in the national capital. He asked the AAP leader to stop indulging in political theatrics and to check out facts.

Taking a dig at Kejriwal’s logic that the satellite pictures of stubble burning in Punjab was proof of cause of the Delhi’s severe pollution, Amarinder said there was no rational proof.

To begin with, the Punjab CM pointed out that the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi remains more than 300 even during December and January every year, when there is no stubble burning in the neighbouring states. This clearly indicates that the New Delhi environment is impacted by its own sources — vehicular emission, construction, industry, power plants, burning of municipal solid waste and municipal sweeping, he added.

Amarinder pointed out that as per the latest report of air pollution forecast by Weather Research and Forecasting Model, winds over Delhi-NCR had changed from north-westerly to easterly, so there was hardly any influence from crop fires in Punjab and Haryana.

“Yet, Delhi’s air quality continued to be very Poor, with an average PPM 2.5 concentrations of 208 micrograms per cubic meters on November 2, caused mainly from vehicular and industrial emissions,” he said.

The data indicated that Kejriwal government had failed completely in addressing the problem of pollution in the national capital, said the Punjab CM.