Punjab farm fires blamed for ‘severe’ AQI

Nitish Sharma

Kurukshetra, November 4

As eight cities in Haryana recorded “severe” air quality index (AQI) over the past 24 hours, the farm fires in Punjab, local factors and the wind direction are being blamed for the current situation.

Of 12 cities with “severe” average air quality in the country, eight were from Haryana. These included Fatehabad (466), Faridabad (438), Jind (432), Hisar (425), Sonepat (416), Kaithal (415), Sirsa (414) and Gurugram (404).

The AQI in 0-50 range of is considered “good”, 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor”, 301-400 “very poor” and 401-500 “severe”.

“The severe AQI in Haryana’s cities is largely due to the farm fires in Punjab, besides other local factors. The number of farm fires in Haryana is quite less,” said an official of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB). The north-west direction of the wind is also a contributing factor.

Haryana Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Dalal blamed Punjab for the smoky conditions. On the social media, the minister slammed the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab over the number of stubble-burning cases in that state. “We have demanded water from Kejriwal ji and Bhagwant Mann ji, not smoke of paddy stubble,” he said.

He also shared statistics regarding farm fires in Punjab and Haryana from November 1 to November 3.

As per the data shared by Jai Prakash Dalal, Punjab witnessed 1,921, 1,668 and 1,551 farm fires on November 1, 2 and 3, while the number of such incidents in Haryana on the said dates stood at 99, 48 and 28, respectively.

On Saturday, HARSAC reported 33 stubble-burning incidents in Haryana, taking the tally this season to 1,405 in the state so far.

However, the situation this year is better than that during the same period last year, when the number stood at 2,440.

Fatehabad district has reported maximum 260 cases so far, followed by Kaithal (199), Jind (184), Ambala (179), Kurukshetra (141), Karnal (93), Yamunanagar (75), Hisar (69), Sonepat (58), Palwal (55), Sirsa (43), Panipat (20), Rohtak (16), Jhajjar (seven), Faridabad (three), Bhiwani (two) and Panchkula (one).

Chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board P Raghavendra Rao said, “The number of farm fires is decreasing. We expect that the situation will improve in the coming days. The harvesting is about to be completed in the GT road belt and we are focusing on districts like Fatehabad, Jind, Sirsa and Hisar where it is still on. Efforts are being made to control farm fires. During a meeting on Friday, directions were issued to the district authorities to strictly enforce the stage III restrictions of GRAP, including sprinkling of water and stopping mining activity.”

Farmer misbehaves with officials, held

Farmer Surender Kumar of Karamgarh village in Sirsa district was arrested for allegedly misbehaving with officials when a team of the district administration reached his fields to check stubble burning. According to the police, the team had information that a farmer had set paddy residue on fire at Karamgarh village. After the farmer misbehaved with the team, he was arrested and a case registered against him under Sections 188, 332 and 353 of the IPC on the complaint of official Sandeep Kumar. TNS