Punjab, Haryana claim farm fires not affecting Delhi’s air, Gahlot says their actions not visible

He said 28,000 such machines were distributed to farmers in 2018 and added that there is a demand of 25,000 machines this year, of which 10,000 have already reached farmers.

Additionally, Punjab has recently deputed one additional chief secretary or principal secretary to each of its 22 districts to monitor residue burning of paddy crops. “We don’t think pollution from Punjab reaches Delhi, but it is a problem anyway and therefore these steps are required,” he said.

Farmers have already started setting fire to crop residue in the state with Amritsar recording 223 active fires events till October 9, the highest in the state so far.

In Haryana, the state pollution control board’s member secretary S Narayanan said the number of active fire cases between September 25 and October 10 have dropped by 116 this year as compared to last year, when 459 cases were recorded.

“This is not the cause of Delhi’s air pollution,” Narayanan added.

The claims were rejected by Gahlot. “Haryana and Punjab haven’t taken mitigating steps. The apathy also stems from the fact that Haryana is going to polls. None of their actions are visible on the ground,” Gahlot said when asked specifically about stubble burning Friday. The average air quality index (AQI) of Delhi remained ‘poor’ for a second day Friday. The AQI on Friday was 216, five points higher than on Thursday.

Air quality and weather forecasting system SAFAR Friday predicted that Delhi’s AQI is expected to remain in the ‘poor’ category Saturday, and would deteriorate to ‘very poor’ on Sunday and Monday. “The biomass fire counts in Punjab and Haryana have significantly increased during the past 24 hours. Such magnitude will influence Delhi’s AQI,” it said.

Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD, said a light northwest wind has been carrying “stubble matter” with it since Friday, which is impacting Delhi’s air quality.