Compensation to the farmers for stubble management is the only solution, Amarinder Singh said (File)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice for compensation to farmers on the management of agricultural stubble, but there has been no response. "The central govt has to step in and find a solution to the crisis," he tweeted as the pollution levels in Delhi and its neighbouring areas spiked this morning, leading to low visibility that affected air and road traffic.
Pollution levels crossed the 600-mark this morning, covering the city in a grey blanket of smog.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who made it clear that smoke from burning stubbles across Punjab and Haryana has been the main contributor to the smog, today tweeted that the people of Delhi were suffering for "no fault of theirs".
"Punjab and Haryana has 27 lakh farmers. How do we reach all of them? How many more years do we have to take it? These issues need to be discussed," said theb Chief Minister, who has already written to the Centre asking for urgent intervention.
Amarinder Singh, who had expressed concern about the pollution in Delhi earlier, tweeted: "Compensation by Central Govt to the farmers for stubble management is the only solution in the circumstances. I had written to PM @NarendraModi ji on 25th Sep & had written to him yesterday as well. The central govt has to step in and find a consensus to resolve the crisis".
In an emotional letter to PM Modi on Saturday, Mr Singh wrote, "No Indian, and definitely no person in Punjab, is oblivious to the misery of our brethren in the national capital, whatever many around the country might have been led to believe."
Pointing out that his own children and grandchildren live in Delhi, the Chief Minister said the prevailing situation "has exposed the hollowness of our claims of being a progressive and developed nation."
"How can a country be called developed when its capital city has been reduced to a gas chamber, not by any natural disaster but a series of man-made ones?" the letter read.
This evening, PK Mishra, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, reviewed the situation. Senior officials from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, joined the meeting through video conference. The Cabinet Secretary will monitor the situation with these states on a daily basis, the government said.