Khattar govt in Haryana failed to tackle pollution situation, says AAP's Anurag Dhanda

Chandigarh, Nov 8 (PTI) The Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana has failed to tackle the pollution situation, AAP leader Anurag Dhanda said on Wednesday and claimed some villages that did not report farm fires in 2022 have witnessed stubble burning this year.

"When a pigeon sees a cat, it closes its eyes. That way, it assumes that, since it can't see the cat, the cat does not exist. That is the approach of the Khattar government on the pollution situation," Dhanda, a senior vice-president of the AAP's Haryana unit, told reporters here.

The state government's failure to tackle pollution is openly visible, he said and alleged that "the government has failed to tackle stubble burning".

"In nearly all districts, several cases have been reported in villages, which were in the green zone earlier. A green zone means not even a single case of stubble burning was reported in these villages in 2022," he said.

However, this year, stubble burning cases have been reported from these green zones as well, Dhanda claimed.

He claimed 11 villages in Kaithal, 15 in Sirsa and 16 in Fatehabad districts that were in the green zone last year reported cases of stubble burning this year.

"Why are farmers in these villages burning stubble? The villages which were in the green zone earlier, the government did not provide any machinery or implements to manage stubble, which left no option before these farmers," the AAP leader claimed.

The government had said that bio-decomposers would be used on five lakh acres but no farmer has been given it so far, he alleged.

Dhanda further said the state government is trying to show that stubble burning cases have come down this year and alleged the claim "belies the ground reality".

The AAP leader also claimed that Haryana's green or tree cover is at 3.5 per cent.

"Delhi, which is completely urbanised, has a green cover of 23 per cent. So, you can imagine the situation in Haryana," he said.

Earlier in the day, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had stressed that there should not be politics over the air pollution issue and that it is the collective responsibility of everyone to keep the environment clean.

"There should be no politics. Unfortunately, a few people are doing politics over it, but they are not getting any benefit ...," the chief minister said when asked by reporters in Pinjore about a Supreme Court bench on Tuesday taking a stern view of states trying to shift the blame on one another and observing there cannot be a "political battle" all the time. PTI SUN SZM