Stubble burning

Following the directions of the Supreme Court, Chief Secretary Anurag Verma has asked District Magistrates and CPs/SSPs to jointly hold a review meeting on the issue daily after receiving the data on farm fires.

Punjab AG called for ban on paddy MSP, demanded MSP for alternate crops to encourage diversification. The AG represents the Mann government in court, but interestingly, AAP's politics on paddy MSPs has been totally contradictory over the years.

While Kejriwal claimed that his govt in Punjab would solve the chronic stubble-burning crisis, the rising pollution in Delhi illustrates that he has failed in his endeavour.

Gopal Rai said, "The stubble burning in Punjab this year is halved as compared to the last year. Punjab's stubble smoke does not have as much impact on Delhi as that of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh."

A group of farmers in Punjab's Bathinda district courted controversy after they allegedly forced a government official, who was part of a team to prevent farm fires, to burn the stubble lying in a field on Friday.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Jawahar Yadav said that Arvind Kejriwal's silence about the NASA data creates suspicion.

AAP has repeatedly blamed stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana for the deteriorating pollution in Delhi.

The Khattar govt in Haryana plans to install 120 compressed biogas plants for using stubble for biogas production.

The Delhi government has written to the Centre to conduct a joint meeting of the NCR states on stubble burning.

Kejriwal said that biomass burning is responsible for one-fifth of the state's pollution, which rises considerably during the cold months when security guards and drivers burn wood and other biomass, leading the city to become a gas chamber due to temperature anomaly.