NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that the ‘problem’ of stubble burning can be turned into an ‘opportunity’ within one year if all concerned governments work on war footing to achieve that. He, however, added that there is a lack of political will at the level of the states to address the problem.
Kejriwal requested Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to hold regular meetings with the chief ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to explore ways to turn crop residue into energy.
Kejriwal said he believed if all the state governments and political parties “work honestly by keeping aside their political differences then we can check air pollution in much less than four years.”
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“Earlier, politics was being done on the extent of pollution caused by stubble burning. But even the Supreme Court has now said that in these two months of the year, pollution is caused mainly by stubble burning,” said Kejriwal while talking about the issue of air pollution.
The Delhi government has been at loggerheads with the Centre over this issue for past few years. Recently, Kejriwal had accused Javadekar of ‘living in denial’ when it came to stubble burning.
The chief minister said although scientists and engineers have come out with solutions to reduce the incidents of stubble burning, such as the biodecomposer developed by the Pusa Institute in Delhi, there is a lack of political will to adopt these methods.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief added the crop residue can be biodegraded or converted into biogas, coal and even cardboard. The paddy straw can be converted into compressed biogas or cooking coal which some factories are doing in Karnal in Haryana.
“There is a factory at Karnal where stubble is getting converted to compressed biogas. This gas can be used just as CNG. Why can’t we adopt such technology? This factory buys the stubble from the farmers. This way the farmers also get money and their income increases,” said Kejriwal.
According to the Delhi government, in Punjab, there are around seven such factories that are making coal and coke from the stubble and sell it to the NTPC. These companies cut the stubble directly from the field and pay the farmers on Rs 500 per acre on average.
