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New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) As a light smog blanketed Delhi, a day after Diwali, the BJP on Tuesday attacked the AAP government in Punjab for its alleged failure to stop farm fires, which are adding to the national capital’s air quality problem.
BJP’s national information and technology department in-charge Amit Malviya said in a post on Over the capital.”
“Unless Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is defeated in Punjab and farmers are encouraged to rethink their cropping patterns, Delhi-NCR will continue to languish every winter,” the BJP leader said.
“It’s not that farmers don’t want to learn new things – it’s that Bhagwant Mann and Kejriwal don’t want to help them with new knowledge and technologies,” he said. “Stop blaming Diwali and firecrackers,” he said.
“Don’t blame Diwali for poor air quality in Delhi-NCR. Authorities in Arvind Kejriwal-ruled Punjab have blamed the rise in farm fires on farmers setting paddy stubble on fire during Diwali celebrations so that the fire can spread in the form of bursting of firecrackers, thereby avoiding police action,” he said.
He also attached an old video of Kejriwal in which Kejriwal is seen blaming farm fires for the increase in Delhi’s air pollution between October 25 and November 20 every year.
“Listen to Kejriwal narrating this incident every year between October and November. You can see how the Aam Aadmi Party is encouraging farmers to burn stubble to denigrate the Hindu festival of Diwali,” Malviya said.
In a related development, a day after Diwali, the Delhi Fire Service reported that it received 269 emergency calls on the festival night – about 15 per cent less than last year.
A top fire official said that last year the department received 318 calls related to fire till midnight on Diwali.
One of the biggest fires that broke out on Monday night was in Janakpuri, in which firefighters rescued seven people, he said.
In another incident in Roop Nagar, two firefighters suffered minor injuries while extinguishing a minor fire, he said.
–IANS
RCH/DPB