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Stubble burning has not declined as much in Punjab as it did in Haryana and other states due to non-utilisation of Centre's schemes, said Union Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav in the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister was replying to the questions of Aam Aadmi Party MP, Sandeep Pathak in the upper house of the Parliament. "To stop stubble burning, special grants have been given by the Central Government to the State Governments. Machines are also provided under this. Other commercial measures were given to prevent it. I want to say that the decline in stubble burning did not occur in Punjab as much as in Haryana and other states. If the resources given by the Central Government had been utilized, then decline could have been seen in Punjab also," Bhupinder Yadav said. He further said that funds worth Rs 2440 crores were released by the Central Government since 2018 to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. "The scheme has been implemented by the Central Government since 2018 in which funds worth about Rs 2440 crore have been released in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and along with this, CPCB has implemented a new scheme in which one-time financial assistance is given where commercial use of Paddy is recognized by converting it into pellets," he added. He also targeted Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann citing that most of the stubble burning incidents were seen in his constituency Sangroor. "In this way, assistance has been given by the Central Government due to which we are seeing a significant decline in stubble burning in the last 2 years. Unfortunately, most of the stubble burning incidents happened in Sangrur which itself is the constituency of CM Bhagwant Mann," the Minister said. Delhi has been battling the pollution for many years. The air quality in the National Capital continued to remain in 'poor' category on Thursday. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi, as per SAFAR-India (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), was recorded at 276 on Thursday morning. However, AQI in some areas of Delhi was recorded in the 'very poor' category on Thursday morning. As per the data from CPCB, the AQI at Anand Vihar stood at 348, in the ITO at 313, and in the Ashok Vihar area at 323 on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. (ANI)
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