'Asked for water, not smoke': Haryana minister slams Punjab govt over stubble burning
PTC News Desk: Haryana Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Dalal slammed the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab on Saturday over stubble-burning incidents in the state, prompting a sharp response from the Aam Aadmi Party.
Dalal shared statistics about farm fires in Punjab and Haryana over the last three days in his post on X.
"We have demanded water from (Arvind) Kejriwal ji and Bhagwant Mann ji, not smoke of paddy stubble," said Dalal in Hindi.
According to data shared by the Haryana minister, Punjab noticed 1,921, 1,668 and 1,551 farm fire incidents on November 1, 2 and 3, while Haryana saw 99, 48, and 28 stubble burning incidents on the same three days.
"20 out of the 52 most polluted districts in the country are in Haryana, and even then, the Khattar government is playing politics and blaming Punjab," a spokesperson of Punjab's AAP unit, Neel Garg, stated.
According to him, the Mann government in Punjab provided farmers with machinery to prevent stubble-burning incidents. "And what did the Khattar government do... only politics," he said, referring to the state's BJP-led government.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is thought to be one of the major causes of the national capital's alarming increase in air pollution levels in October and November.
Because the window for wheat, a key Rabi crop, is so short after paddy harvest, some farmers set fire to their fields to clear the crop residue before sowing the next crop.
On Friday, several parts of Haryana had 'severe' air quality, while parts of neighbouring Punjab had 'poor' air quality.
According to data from the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, the state of Punjab reported a total of 12,813 stubble-burning incidents as of Friday.
- With inputs from agencies
