Chandigarh/New Delhi: Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday questioned why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was repeatedly blaming Punjab, governed by the Aam Aadmi Party, for Delhi's air pollution while staying silent on Haryana, where the BJP is in power. His remarks came as the BJP intensified its attack on the AAP, with Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari asking whether farm fires were part of a "conspiracy to ruin Diwali".
"Why only Punjab? Is nothing happening in Haryana?" Cheema asked, questioning whether the BJP believed no burning of paddy stubble was taking place in the neighbouring agrarian state that falls between Delhi and Punjab.
Cheema said Delhi's BJP government should focus on controlling pollution in the national capital instead of shifting the blame to Punjab.
BJP MP Tiwari had earlier claimed that farm fires were being deliberately increased in AAP-ruled Punjab under Arvind Kejriwal's leadership.
"Is this a conspiracy to ruin Diwali, a festival of Sanatan Dharma?" Tiwari asked, accusing the AAP of secretly opposing the Hindu religion. "What revenge are you taking on Delhi? Why are you harming the people of Punjab as well?" he said, as a question to Kejriwal.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa shared a district-wise map of satellite-detected active fire counts in Punjab. The map placed Tarn Taran and Ferozepur in its highest count band. "These satellite-detected stubble fires demand accountability, not political excuses," Sirsa wrote in a post on X, targeting Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the state's environment minister.
On November 3, Sirsa also accused the Punjab government of deliberately encouraging stubble burning to worsen Delhi's air. At a press conference, he showed a video and alleged that Punjab Police personnel and government officials were setting crop residue on fire.
The AAP rejected the accusation and said the officials shown in the images were trying to put out a fire, not start one, and accused the BJP of blaming Punjab's farmers to cover up its failure to control pollution in Delhi.
According to figures cited by Sirsa, Punjab recorded 584 farm-fire incidents on November 3, up from 98 the previous day.
Delhi recorded an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 166 in October, its lowest October average in eight years according to official figures. The daily AQI was 60 on October 30 and rose to 377 by November 4.
At 9 am on Friday, the AQI stood at 391, just short of the 'severe' category. Thirty of the city's 59 monitoring stations were already in the 'severe' category.
The Supreme Court also took up the Delhi-NCR pollution crisis on Friday. A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant suggested announcing crop-stubble procurement prices in advance and strengthening systems for collecting residue at the gram panchayat level. The bench also flagged vehicular traffic as a major source of pollution.
The Centre told the court that stubble burning accounted for around 14 per cent of Delhi's pollution on Thursday.
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