As a thick haze draped the National Capital Region on Friday, with the air quality index continuing in the “severe” category for the second straight day, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab admitted responsibility for failure to curb the stubble burning that was a significant contributing factor to the pollution. However, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said another year was needed to find a solution to the problem.
In a joint press conference with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday, Mr. Kejriwal admitted that the stubble burning in Punjab was “the responsibility of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab”, but held that the six months since the party came to power in the State was too little time to fix the problem. “A bumper crop has meant more paddy stubble and we promise to find a solution by next November,” he added.
Over the last week, the worsening air quality index prompted the Central government and the State governments of Delhi and Punjab to trade accusations of not doing enough to address stubble burning.
One major area of contention was the use of a bio-decomposer, a microbial liquid spray that has been experimented on for at least two years in the Delhi NCR region. When sprayed on paddy stubble, the bio-decomposer breaks it down in a way that it can be easily absorbed into the soil so that farmers have no need to burn it.
The product was expected to be applied on five lakh acres of farmland in Haryana, or about 15% of the acreage under paddy. Instances of stubble burning in the State have fallen from 3,666 last year to 2,440 this year.
In Punjab, however, only limited bio-decomposer had been applied, with Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav claiming that the State had “officially” declined to use the spray on the grounds that it was ineffective. Of the 75 lakh acres of paddy in Punjab, the State had committed to use it only in five lakh acres.
‘Not cost-effective’
A Punjab government official said that the spray had been applied in about “90%” of this area but there was pessimism about its success. “The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, had tested it in their fields for three years. Their recommendation was that it wasn’t cost effective and we have to go by their recommendation,” said Gurvinder Singh, Director, in the state agriculture department. “We are, however, on our own experimenting and we’ll have solid data by the year end on its effectiveness,” he added.
Addressing a joint press conference with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on November 4, 2022, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that there will be no classes for students in primary section from November 5. | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
There have been 26,583 instances of burning in Punjab this year compared to 23,610 at the same time last year. This, however, is nearly 54% of such instances recorded in 2020.
Also read: Farm fires’ share in Delhi’s pollution 38%, highest this season
‘Not cost-effective’
A Punjab government official said that the spray had been applied in about “90%” of this area but there was pessimism about its success. “The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, had tested it in their fields for three years. Their recommendation was that it wasn’t cost effective and we have to go by their recommendation,” said Gurvinder Singh, Director, in the state agriculture department. “We are, however, on our own experimenting and we’ll have solid data by the year end on its effectiveness,” he added.
There have been 26,583 instances of burning in Punjab this year compared to 23,610 at the same time last year. This, however, is nearly 54% of such instances recorded in 2020.
“In October 2021, there was a slump in the economy and Covid restrictions were in place too. However, this year, a lot more activity resumed which could be a reason for higher PM levels,” said Aarti Khosla, director, Climate Trends. “For years, the action against air pollution has included ad-hoc measures during the winter season. The governments have also resorted to a blame game as air pollution levels spike in the national capital and around. What we need are long term solutions like switching to clean energy, managing vehicular pollution and strengthening monitoring to tackle emissions all year round so we can avoid such hazardous levels of pollutions during winter,” she added.
Published - November 04, 2022 11:59 am IST
