NEW DELHI: The Centre and Delhi government on Thursday locked horns over the issue of air pollution in the national capital. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar’s remark that stubble burning contributes to only 4 per cent air pollution in the city, invited strong comments from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told the minister that ‘staying in denial will not help curb pollution’.
“Only 4 per cent pollution is due to stubble burning. Ninety-six per cent of it is due to local factors like biomass burning, garbage dumping, unpaved roads, dust, construction and demolition activities, etc,” Javadekar said.
Hitting back, the Aam Aadmi Party government said the central government should take measures to stop air pollution and not defend states like Haryana that are taking no steps to curb air pollution. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the contribution from stubble burning is 44 per cent based on CPCB’s data.
“Staying in denial will not help. If stubble burning causes only 4% pollution, then why has pollution suddenly increased last fortnite? Air was clean before that. Same story every year. There’s no massive jump in any local source of pollution in last few days to cause this spike?” tweeted Kejriwal.
“Let’s accept that stubble burning causes huge pollution every year in North India during this time. And let’s all together find a solution sincerely. Blame game and politics hasn’t helped anyone. People are suffering,” he added.
Javadekar later clarified that he was was referring to the contribution of stubble burning only for this year, which is 4 per cent till now. “My statement today on Air Pollution in Delhi has been misinterpreted by a section of the media. Let me clarify, the figures of 4% share of stubble burning in AQI in Delhi, pertained to this week. It varies from 4% to 40% during peak stubble burning,” he tweeted.
Earlier, Javadekar also announced flagged off 50 teams of the Central Pollution Control Body (CPCB), which the Aam Aadmi Party accused of being ‘political’, to check the pollution causing factors in Delhi-NCR.
