As the National Capital Region (NCR) air quality is expected to deteriorate to severe conditions, Bhupender Yadav, the union environment minister, stated on November 3 that Punjab officially refused to use the biodecomposer spray that is supposed to help farmers manage their paddy straw and had fallen short of its commitments to curb stubble burning.

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Delhi developed the Pusa biodecomposer, a microbial solution that decomposes paddy stubble into manure. It has been tested for over two years in Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.

“However, the AAP government in Punjab has said that they won’t be using it. Without any scientific evidence they are claiming that this doesn’t work,” the minister said.

 “On the other hand, the spray had been successfully deployed in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and had helped reduce instances of stubble burning,” he added.

Bhupender Yadav blamed Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for turning Delhi into a gas chamber. 

“As of today, Punjab, a state run by the AAP government, has seen an over 19% rise in farm fires over 2021. Haryana has seen a 30.6% drop. Just today, Punjab saw 3,634 fires. There is no doubt over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber,” the minister said in a tweet.

Earlier on November 1, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Central government for rising incidents of stubble burning in Punjab, which is also ruled by his AAP goverment. 

“The Centre had declined requests to provide cash incentives to farmers for not burning their crop residue,” he said.

The Chairman of the Commission for Air Quality Management, M.M. Kutty, said that Punjab had committed to using the biodecomposer in only 5,000 acres. The total area under paddy cultivation in Punjab is close to 75 lakh acres.