Even as the Punjab government claiming reduction in the incidence of stubble burning the Haryana government released images on Friday showing more than double such incidents in Punjab as compared to Haryana.

Countering Punjab government’s claim that the number of paddy-straw burning incidents have reduced by 53 per cent this year, the Haryana government said the recently-released satellite images of NASA on stubble burning had exposed the apparent discrepancies in the claims made by the governments of Delhi and Punjab regarding the reduction in stubble burning cases in the region.

Referring to the “data from NASA’s official website”, an official spokesperson of Haryana government said the satellite images displayed on NASA’s platform indicate a staggering difference in the number of active stubble-burning cases, with Punjab having more than double the instances as compared to Haryana. These differences certainly outline Haryana’s efforts in tackling the issue, said the spokesperson.

“NASA has exposed the tall claims made by the Delhi government and Punjab government for wrongly implicating Haryana in incidents of stubble burning related to pollution in New Delhi, ” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson said that the Punjab government consistently claims to have less stubble burning in Punjab, while the Delhi government continues to accuse Haryana of having more stubble burning.

“Instead of making accusations, the Punjab government should focus on reducing stubble burning incidents in their state. For this, the Punjab government should follow Haryana’s policies and provide farmers in their state with awareness about crop residue management, following the grants given to Haryana’s farmers,” said the spokesperson.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s OSD (Officer on Special Duty) Jawahar Yadav said NASA data  for 25 October and 26 October clearly shows where there is stubble burning in Punjab and in Haryana but more than double stubble burning has occurred in Punjab as compared to Haryana.

“The Haryana government has brought it down…The silence of Arvind Kejriwal about the NASA data creates suspicion. He has alleged that Indian agencies are not giving data on pollution… Why does he need it now?… The Punjab government has failed, and Arvind Kejriwal’s face has been exposed in front of the public…,” Yadav told a news agency.

Earlier today, the Punjab government claimed the number of paddy straw burning incidents have  reduced from 5798 to 2704 between 15 September 2023 and 25 October 2023 as compared to the number of such incidents during the same period in 2022.