Stubble burning: Delhi’s air quality hits ‘very poor’ level, farmers blame govt for ‘no help’
13 October, 2020 | Ojasvi Chauhan
Stubble burning: Due to the unfavourable meteorological conditions, farm fires, people in the national capital are struggling to breathe.
Amid ongoing coronavirus crisis, the trouble for Delhi people has almost doubled as Delhi’s air quality touched the ‘very poor’ mark today. Due to the unfavourable meteorological conditions, farm fires, people in the national capital are struggling to breathe.
On October 12, Delhi’s air quality hit its lowest as the air quality recorded was the worst since February. The particulate matters concentration PM2.5 and PM10 reached their highest levels on October 12, 2020. According to the satellite images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), stubble burning has also started as farmers in parts of Punjab and Haryana have started burning crop residue.
Official data suggests, this year the incidents recorded of stubble burning in the first week of October from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab were 5 times as compared to the previous year.
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The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi is declining day by day but the farm fires are rampant. To fight the air deterioration menace, stricter measures will come into force from October 15 under the Graded Action Plan. Delhi government recently launched a campaign to combat pollution, Yuddh Pradushan ke Viruddh.
A farmer from Amritsar said that the government, be it the Congress or the Badals [SAD], didn’t provide any help to farmers, the main reason farmers resorted to crop burning was because help had to come to them.
A farmer leader said that it was easy to give bytes on camera and quotes in newspapers but take a look around and it could be realised that the government just wanted to penalise the farmer without giving any help.