DON’T POLITICISE POLLUTION: KEJRIWAL

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the issue of pollution should not be “politicised” even as he attributed Sunday’s hazardous air quality to stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab.

Addressing people via video on social media a day ahead of the odd-even road space rationing drive, Kejriwal urged all neighbouring states and the Centre to “sit together” and deliberate on how to prevent stubble burning.

“What will we get by playing blame-game? We are just saying that the smoke in Delhi is due to stubble burning and we have to stop it collectively.

Even scientists and environmental experts are now saying that stubble burning is the main cause of smoke in Delhi. We just wish that all the state governments and the central government come together to solve the matter,” he said.

Kejriwal further questioned the pace at which the Centre was distributing straw management systems to farmers to stop stubble burning.

“Till now 63,000 machines have been made available to farmers in Punjab and Haryana.

There are 27 lakh farmers in these states. How long would it take to distribute these machines to all these farmers? For how long do we have to bear this pollution?” he asked.

Straw management systems are to be fitted with harvesters. Once these are fixed, these machines cut paddy straw into small pieces and spread evenly across the field. As a result, farmers do not have to burn the straw as it is.

OPPOSITION SLAMS GOVT

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, however, alleged that there has been laxity on the part of the Kejriwal government in mitigating air pollution in the city.

The Delhi Congress on Sunday organised a protest outside Kejriwal’s residence against the soaring pollution levels in the city.