Chandigarh, November 2
The deteriorating air quality in Delhi and NCR region has become a contentious issue with the Centre and state governments blaming each other for the crisis.
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday accused the BJP of targeting farmers over stubble-burning as a “revenge for their protest against the now-repealed farm laws”. The statement came a day after the BJP targeted the Mann government over rising farm fires and asked it to wake up from its “deep slumber”.
Bhagwant Mann Punjab Chief Minister. File photo
CM Mann accused the BJP of playing politics over the issue by holding Punjab responsible for air pollution, while sparing other neighbouring BJP-ruled states.
“We had asked the Centre to give an incentive of Rs 1,500 per acre to farmers for not burning straw, but it did not agree. We even asked it to promote the biogas industry, but nothing happened,” he said, adding the Centre was accusing the Punjab farmers even as stubble-burning cases were being reported from Haryana, UP and Rajasthan too.
Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal too said both Centre and Haryana were politicising the issue. “Stubble-burning in Haryana is choking Delhi,” claimed Dhaliwal. Farm fires, meanwhile, continued to rage throughout Punjab, recording the highest ever 3,634 incidents in a day on Wednesday.
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar slammed Mann over farm fires.
