Amarinder said by blaming others for his lapses, Kejriwal was showing signs of his poor leadership. Amarinder said by blaming others for his lapses, Kejriwal was showing signs of his poor leadership.

Calling his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal “a shameless liar”, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday termed the Aam Aadmi Party’s proposed protest over the alleged inaction by the state in controlling stubble burning as an “obvious political stunt” with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections in the national capital.

“The air pollution in the national capital is directly related to the rampant construction activity, widespread industrialization and total mismanagement of the city traffic,” Amarinder said, adding that Kejriwal was trying desperately to divert public attention from his own government’s failures by indulging in such outright lies.

Amarinder’s reaction came even as Kejriwal again requested Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh governments to provide machinery and equipment to their farmers to stop the stubble burning. He told a press conference that the national capital is choking because of stubble-burning in the neighbouring states.

According to Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor SAFAR, the share of stubble-burning in Delhi’s pollution has risen to 35 percent, the season’s highest, and the hazardous haze shrouding the city on Wednesday can be “purely” attributed to it.

“Everyone can see how polluted the air is since yesterday. Delhi is choking because of the stubble-burning in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. I want to request the BJP to pressure its governments in both the states to provide facilities and equipment to farmers to stop them from burning stubble,” Kejriwal said.

Explained Pointing to the neighbours The effect of farm fires on pollution in the National Capital Region has taken a political colour, with the Delhi Chief Minister saying the governments in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh aren’t doing enough to address the problem. Whether his appeals to neighbours have an impact remains to be seen.

He also appealed to the Congress-led government in Punjab to stop stubble burning in the state.

Kejriwal said he has spoken to many farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who say they are ready to stop burning stubble if they get alternate machinery which can benefit them in one way or the other. “The farmers are ready, but there is a lack of effort by the governments. The incidents of stubble-burning have doubled from the previous year, which is a matter of worry for everyone,” he said.

From March to mid-October this year, the air quality in Delhi was good and moderate, but after October 15, the air quality started deteriorating, he said. “This is due to the stubble burning.” “On behalf of the people of Delhi, I want to appeal to the central and state governments to support us in reducing pollution in the national capital,” he also said.

Amarinder, however, said that by blaming others for his own lapses, Kejriwal was showing signs of his poor leadership. Amarinder accused him of resorting to “political gimmickry” after failing to seriously address the pollution problem in Delhi in the past five years.

“Now that Delhi was reeling under dangerously hazardous levels of pollution, the AAP chief had suddenly decided to turn his attention to the critical issue,” Amarinder Singh said, questioning the Delhi CM on the steps taken by his government to tackle the problem.

Amarinder said Kejriwal’s claim that stubble burning in neighbouring states was responsible for the horrendous situation in Delhi was absolutely ludicrous, especially considering that the number of farm fires in Punjab had actually been the same as last year. If stubble burning is the primary cause of Delhi’s air pollution, as Kejriwal claims it to be, then how can he explain the atrociously high AQI in the national capital even during the months of December and January, asked Amarinder. He asked Kejriwal to explain how he could blame Punjab when the AQI levels in the state, where the stubble fires were taking place, were much better than Delhi.

“The sudden spike in pollution levels in Delhi post Diwali was quite evidently linked with the firecrackers, which Kejriwal and his government failed to control despite the Supreme Court’s directives in this regard,” Amarinder said, pointing out that the national capital’s PM2.5 concentration had, as per reports, actually been lower this year than in the past

“Reports suggest that AQI in Delhi, which was recorded at 163 at 5:30 pm on Diwali day, touched 1,005 around 11:30 pm the same night due to sudden spurt in firecrackers. Can’t he see the correlation between these figures and the current AQI levels in Delhi,” asked Captain Amarinder, asking the chief minister of the national capital to refrain from resorting to such theatrics.

AAP has been totally wiped out already from the political scene in Punjab and elsewhere and Kejriwal’s decision to resort to street politics clearly indicates that he is looking at imminent defeat even in Delhi, which has evidently prompted him to resort to such theatrics, said the Punjab Chief Minister.

AAP has been totally wiped out already from the political scene in Punjab and elsewhere and Kejriwal’s decision to resort to street politics clearly indicated that he was looking at an imminent defeat even in Delhi, which had evidently prompted him to resort to such theatrics, said the Punjab chief minister.

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