The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday, lashed out at the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab over what it called as complete failure to check stubble burning which it said had led to massive air pollution in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP’s state general secretary Subhash Sharma said the past experience suggests that the stubble burning will increase in the last 15 days. This means, he added, the situation is likely to deteriorate further while the government remains unconcerned.
The BJP leader said despite the Central government providing 47 percent of the total amount provided to states for the prevention of stubble burning to Punjab, the state couldn’t do much to contain the menace. He said the Central government had provided Punjab Rs 1143 crore during the last three years and yet the state had made no progress in this direction as compared to Haryana.
Sharma said 1,20,000 machines bought for the purpose of preventing stubble burning remained unutilised. “This only reveals the indifference of the state government towards this serious problem that is suffocating Punjab,” he added.
Sharma advised Bhagwant Mann to stop playing a puppet to Arvind Kejriwal and Raghav Chada. He and his ministers were wasting their time in Gujarat where they will not get even a single seat. “Better focus on your own state whose people made you the chief minister, and they did not make you the chief minister to roam around Gujarat.”
The BJP leader said the AAP had survived on lies and fake propaganda. “So far you (the AAP) have been blaming others, but now is the time to own up responsibility as you have no one else to blame,” he told the AAP government, adding, this is the time to act, lest it will be too late as the state is suffocating.