Kejriwal wins Haryana help in pollution battle
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar assures Kejriwal co-operation to check the farm waste burning in the state that brings toxic smog to the national capital
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, under ire from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the high levels of air pollution in Delhi, on Wednesday air-dashed to Chandigarh for a meeting with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who in return assured him co-operation to check the farm waste burning in the state that brings toxic smog to the national capital.
While Punjab also remained a state that allows similar stubble burning, its chief minister Amarinder Singh has snubbed Kejriwal when a meeting was sought.
Singh said a meeting is pointless as the issue of stopping farm ire needs to be resolved by either the Centre or the Supreme Court, which is hearing petitions that ask for its intervention in the ight against Delhi’s pollution.
Farmers hold votes in thousands and no party wants to risk angering them by enforcing a ban on crop burning. Kejriwal has said he understands and accepts that farmers must be given inancial aid if they are ordered to stop farm ires for more environmentfriendly options.
After the meeting, Kejriwal and Khattar issued a statement which said: “We agreed upon the need for action on many measures aimed at predicting its re-occurrence in the winter of 2018.” “We accept that pollution in Delhi is a concern for the whole country... it is the national capital,” said Khattar who had accused Kejriwal of trying to “politicise” the issue.
The statement said they have “jointly identiied action points” and are committed to “quick action on a number of fronts.” “We are happy to have had a very fruitful meeting at Chandigarh. We recognise our deep and shared concern over the recent episode of heavy smog in our NCR. We agreed upon the need for action on many measures aimed at preventing its re-occurrence in the winter of 2018,” said the statement.
“We covered crop residue burning and vehicular pollution issues. We resolve to put in sustained efforts in pursuance of the jointly identiied action points in the coming days, weeks and months,” the statement added. “We look forward to covering other sources of air and water pollution in our future discussions,” it said.
Meanwhile, a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that Delhi is sitting on Rs15 billion in green funds. As the revelation ignited a row, the government said the funds will be used to buy 500 electric buses in the next one year. However, it argued that it does not have enough land to park the additional leet of buses that it would acquire.
AAP MLA and spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “Delhi government has never said we do not have the money to tackle pollution. We have, instead said, we have budget to buy buses, but no space to park. We have also said that we are even ready for to pay for aerial water sprinkling, we just need support from the Central government and Civil Aviation Ministry.” The Delhi cabinet has also approved the procurement of 2,000 new buses recently and requested an additional 135 acres of land that will serve as depots to park the new buses. Kejriwal, in a meeting on Tuesday, directed oficers to move fast on augmenting the public transport system.
The Petroleum ministry, meanwhile, said the Centre will advance by two years the rollout of next-generation BS VI fuels for Delhi, aiming to curb zooming pollution levels in the capital city.
The Bharat Stage (BS) VI fuels will come into effect from April 1 next in view of the “serious pollution levels in Delhi and adjoining areas.” “This measure is expected to help mitigate the problem of air pollution in the national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi and surrounding areas,” the ministry said in a statement.
The government has also asked oil manufacturing companies to study feasibility of providing the cleaner fuels to the entire National Capital Region (NCR), which includes parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, by April, 2019.