New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped the Delhi & Punjab governments over spate of stubble burning incidents despite the deteriorating air quality in the national capital. The bench of justices SK Kaul and S Dhulia asked the two governments, both led by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) party to stop burning of agricultural residues as this apparently remains ‘biggest’ contributor to Delhi’s poor AQI. "This is the most polluted November in six years... the problem is known (and) it is your job to control it," the court told the two states. The Apex court cited example of neighbouring Haryana and asked Punjab to take lessons from it in containing the factors, leading to Delhi’s worsening air quality & pollution. It also asked the governments to stop treating farmers like villain as the latter don’t have any representation in court. The observations by Apex court, comes on back of fresh wave of toxic air enveloping the capital. “Why doesn’t the Punjab government make the process of crop residue 100% free? To burn it, all the farmer needs to do is light a matchstick. Machine for the management of crop residue to farmers is not everything,” Apex court said. “The state of Punjab should also take a cue from the state of Haryana in the manner in which financial incentives are given,” said the Supreme Court. The court also observed that land in Punjab is becoming arid slowly because the water table is getting depleted. If the land runs dry, everything else will get affected, the apex court said. The Supreme Court also asked the Attorney General R Venkatramani to explore new crops for cultivation other than rice in the state as this would not only mitigate incidents of stubble burning but will also help restore the soil quality. Notably, AAP and BJP have been engaged in blamegame over toxic air enveloping Delhi-NCR. While BJP points fingers at Delhi & Punjab government over capital turning into gas chamber every winter, the latter has blamed BJP-led govts in UP & Haryana as being major contributors to air pollution.
