Rajasthan, Punjab causing bad air quality in Delhi-NCR: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Expressing serious concern over Delhi’s air quality remaining in the ‘severe’ category for the fifth day in a row, forcing the closure of primary schools, Science & Technology Minister Jitendra Singh cautioned that air-pollution-related stubble-burning cases have risen by 160 per cent in Rajasthan and 20 per cent in Punjab.

This, he said, implies that the governments in the two states are not doing enough to check stubble burning and are, on the contrary, increasingly contributing to the deteriorating air quality in Delhi-NCR.

Incidentally, Rajasthan is ruled by the Congress while Punjab is governed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — both non-BJP parties.

The Minister, who is also In-Charge of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ministry of Earth Sciences, said that on the other hand, states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP) had recorded a progressive decline in incidents of stubble fire burning.

While the BJP is the ruling party in UP, Haryana is under a coalition government headed by the BJP, with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) being a partner since 2019.

Singh said that such inferences indicated that either the governments in Rajasthan and Punjab were not serious about air quality or they had not properly utilized the funds provided by the Narendra Modi government to purchase machines for stubble management.

Singh pointed out that since 2018-19, on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre had provided Rs 3,138 crore to states for stubble management, out of which nearly Rs 1,500 crore was provided to Punjab alone.

He said it was for the people to judge as to why Punjab and Rajasthan continued to show further deterioration, while many states had done an appreciable job in stubble management and were gradually moving in positive directions.

This raises several questions regarding their intent, sincerity and prosperity, he said.

Referring to findings by IMD and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) under the aegis of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Singh said there was 160 per cent and 20 per cent rise in cases of stubble burning in Rajasthan and Punjab respectively in October 2022 compared to October 2021.

Farm fires in Punjab rose from 13,269 to 16,004 from October 2021 to October 2022, recording a rise of 20 per cent, while in Rajasthan, it rose from 124 to 318, recording a rise of 160 per cent.

The minister also raised alarm that Delhi recorded seven “Very Poor” Air Quality Days in October this year compared to nil such cases in October 2021.

He pointed out that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh witnessed a decline in farm fire incidents by 30 per cent and 38 per cent respectively during the same period.

Haryana witnessed 1,995 fire counts in October 2022 as compared to 2,914 in October 2021. Similarly, UP registered 768 fire counts this October, compared to 1,060 cases in October 2021.

In the first five days of the current month of November, the number of fire counts was much higher in Punjab than in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

For example, on November 5, the number of fire counts in Punjab was 2,817 and in Rajasthan 91 compared to 90 in Haryana and 24 in Uttar Pradesh. The highest fire count on any single day was recorded on November 2, when Punjab topped with 3,634 farm fire incidents and the number in Rajasthan recorded up to 63 cases.

Singh said the abnormal rise in cases of stubble burning in Punjab in the first five days of November was solely responsible for pushing the air quality to the 'severe' category.

He said Punjab registered 13,396 fire counts November 1-5 while it was 16,004 for the entire month of October.

IMD and IITM have operationalized the Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS).

The contribution of stubble fire to the pollution level of PM2.5 is estimated by AQEWS. The contributed pollution has been estimated at 9.7 per cent on November 1, 7.4 per cent on November 2, 32 per cent on November 3, and 17.8 per cent on November 4.