New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has written to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asking him to take effective measures against stubble burning by farmers to contain rising air pollution in the national capital. In the letter by the LG to CM Mann, the former said that due to the burning of stubble in Punjab, the capital Delhi has once again turned into a gas chamber.
“It is sad that the volume of Parali fires (farm fires) in Punjab has increased since 2021,” the LG wrote in the letter to Mann while asking him to make farmers “willing partners in defeating the deadly pollution in Delhi-NCR.” The LG said that the stubble burning in Punjab was contributing 95 percent to the rising air pollution in Delhi which has consistently been in the “severe” category.
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Besides, stubble burning in Punjab has increased by a “whopping 19 percent” from October 24 to November 2 as compared to the corresponding time last year, the LG claimed. He said the rising air pollution had resulted in a manifold increase in hospitalizations related to pulmonary ailments with children and the elderly most affected.
People in Delhi are complaining of sore throat, nasal congestion, burning of the eyes, and other health issues, the LG said. The LG asked Mann to take effective measures against stubble burning and said he will talk to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to talk to him in this regard. Meanwhile, CM Mann reacted sharply to the Delhi LG's letter.
“LG Sahib, you are stopping the work by the elected government of Delhi. Stopped the "Red Light On, Car Off" campaign and are doing politics by writing to me? Politics is not right on such a serious subject,” Mann wrote in a tweet in Hindi.
