Delhi govt blames Haryana, UP for worsening air in Delhi

Delhi chief minister Atishi on Sunday hit out at neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, accusing their state governments of failing to do enough to control rising air pollution in the region, and attributed worsening air quality index (AQI) to cross-boundary pollution.
In a press conference alongside former minister Satyendar Jain, Atishi said stubble burning cases nearly halved this year in Punjab, but were on the rise in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. She also cited the two states’ failure to switch to cleaner public transport to alleviate air pollution in the capital.
“The real reason behind deteriorating air quality in Delhi is the dirty politics being played by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Stubble burning is a key reason behind increase in winter pollution in Delhi and while instances have reduced significantly in the last two years in Punjab, they are on the rise in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” said Atishi, referring to data from the Centre’s Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa.
Data showed there were 71,300 instances of farm fires in Punjab in 2021, with this figure down to around 36,600 in 2023. This year, 811 farm fires have been reported there, down from 1,123 incidents reported in the corresponding period last year, she said.
“On the other hand, if we look at these figures in BJP-ruled Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, last year this figure was 341 in Haryana, which has increased by 23% to 417 this year. In UP, 244 incidents of stubble burning were reported from October 1 to October 15 last year, which has increased by 70% to 417,” she said, blaming a lack of will from the BJP to tackle local sources.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva denied the claims and said that by defending its own government in Punjab, the AAP leaders in Delhi were going up against the people of Delhi. “Till 2021, the same government would not stop blaming Punjab for pollution in Delhi, but now, suddenly, the blame has been shifted to neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Atishi and Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai inspected Anand Vihar, a hot spot that has been recording hazardous levels of pollution over the past week. The large influx of interstate buses from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, along with ongoing construction of the RRTS corridor, were contributing to high pollution levels locally, they said.
“Anand Vihar has become a pollution hot spot, but the Delhi government is taking strict measures to reduce pollution here. We have deployed multiple anti-smog guns around the bus terminal and its vicinity, repaired all surrounding roads, and removed encroachments from traffic congestion points to ensure smooth traffic flow.” Atishi said.
She said that Delhi is operating CNG and electric buses, but diesel buses operating across the border at the Kaushambi bus terminal in Uttar Pradesh were causing pollution.
“We will engage with the Uttar Pradesh government to implement stringent anti-pollution measures there,” she said, adding they were hopeful of finding a solution with the neighbouring states.
Besides diesel buses, Atishi also blamed brick kilns and thermal power plants operating in neighbouring states. She said there were over 3,800 brick kilns operational in the NCR areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, with no action being taken to control pollution from these sources. “Thermal power plants also spread a lot of pollution. Under the AAP government, all thermal power plants were shut in Delhi, but in UP and Haryana, BJP runs nine highly polluting thermal power plants,” she said.
Delhi’s average AQI has been ”poor” since October 16. The AQI was 277 (poor) at 4pm on Sunday, but Anand Vihar’s AQI was in the “severe” range—over 400 in the early hours. At 4pm, the AQI at Anand Vihar was 374 (very poor).
Data from the Centre’s Decision Support System (DSS), a model that estimates the contribution of sources to Delhi’s PM 2.5, estimated that a combination of local and cross-boundary sources of pollution from NCR was impacting Delhi. The contribution of Delhi’s vehicular sector was 9.7%, while the NCR cities of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad had an estimated contribution of 11.4% and 8.3%, respectively.