Union Env Minister Bhupendra Yadav takes on Kejriwal for blaming Centre for Delhi pollution

New Delhi, 3 November 2022: Union Environment Minister, Bhupendra Yadav on Thursday criticised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his attempts to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the terrible levels of air pollution in the nation’s capital and the rest of north India.

Yadav criticised the Aam Aadmi Party and the Delhi government blaming the centre for turning the nation’s capital into a “gas chamber” and calling it a “scam.”

Recently, the union minister posted on social media, “Farm fires have increased by more than 19% in Punjab, a state governed by the AAP, as of today. A 30.6% decrease was reported in Haryana. Punjab experienced 3,634 flames just today. Who converted Delhi into a gas chamber is without dispute.

He refuted Kejriwal’s comment stating, “Scam is where AAP is. In the last 5 years, the Central Government gave Rs 1,347 crores for crop residue management machines to Punjab. The state bought 1,20,000 machines. 11,275 of those machines have gone missing. Money utilisation shows clear incompetence.”

Punjab received Rs 280 crores from the Central Government this year for crop residue management equipment. Therefore, there was around Rs 492 crore available, but the state government opted to hoard the money, compelling hapless farmers to burn crop leftover, he added.

Taking on the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he said that even in his own backyard of Sangrur, the Chief Minister of Punjab has failed to offer aid to farmers. There were 1,266 farm fires in Sangrur from September 15 to November 2, 2017. They increased by 139% this year, reaching 3,025.

Prior to the minister’s accusations, Arvind Kejriwal had questioned PM Modi, “North India as a whole struggle with pollution. Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is nearly constant around the world. Did pollution from Delhi-Punjab spread throughout the entire nation? Why doesn’t the PM convene a meeting of all states to discuss this?

“The centre merely files FIRs against the farmers; it offers no assistance. They disregarded our suggestion for addressing stubble burning. No one is discussing a solution to this; only politics are being discussed,” he further alleged.