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The Delhi government, led by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has spent more than 23 crores on advertising related to air pollution mitigation, but only a few lakhs on purchasing decomposers to mitigate pollution caused by pollution. stubble burning in the last 2 years. The Delhi government spent more than Rs 15.8 crore on advertising for the Pusa biodecomposer in 2020-21, and Rs 7.47 crore in 2021-22.
In its response, the Delhi government stated that apart from buying a biodecomposer, they spent Rs 24 lakh 62 thousand rupees on a rented tractor to spray it and Rs 18 lakh on tents during the 2021-22 fiscal year.
The amount spent in 2020-21 was disclosed by the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) of the Delhi government in a written response to BJP MLA OP Sharma's query during the Assembly's Monsoon session in July 2021. Accordingly, Rs 40,000 was spent on purchasing the chemical to compost stubble in 2020-21.
The Agricultural Development Branch sponsored 56 training programs at a cost of Rs 4,69,000 to improve farmers' knowledge of stubble burning. A total of Rs 15.8 crore was spent on advertising the biodecomposer alone. In 2020-21, the amount spent on advertising is 336 times greater than the amount spent on effective mitigation measures.
Similarly, for the fiscal year 2021-22, Delhi Assembly Leader Ram Singh Bidhuri asked about it. He had asked how much money the Delhi government had spent in the fiscal year 2021-22 to buy a bio-decomposition solution to make manure from stubble. In response to this query, the government stated that the Delhi government paid Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 thousand 55 for the purchase of a biodecomposer solution.
According to the latest report obtained by the news website Newslaundry, which clearly shows that in the fiscal year 2020-21, it is written in the report that the Delhi government spent around Rs 22 lakh on spraying biodecomposer, while in 2021- 22 Rs 46 lakh was spent.
In this way, a total of Rs 68 lakh has been spent in these two financial years. Similarly, if we look at the spending on advertising, around Rs 16 crore was spent in the fiscal year 2020-21 and Rs 7 crore in 2021-22. In this way, in these two years, the government has spent a total of 23 million rupees on advertising. However, the government has played a long shot which is not at all a success for ordinary citizens.
As a result, the Delhi government spent around Rs 46 lakhs on biodecomposer fumigation in FY2021-22. Elsewhere in the reply, it has been claimed that the Delhi government has spent 7 crore 47 lakh, Rs 26 thousand 88 on advertising the same.
Combining the spending statistics for the previous two years on stubble burning mitigation, it is evident that more than Rs 23 crore is spent on marketing alone. This is about 99% of the total amount allocated for this purpose.
Stubble burning and the resulting high levels of air pollution have been a regular feature of winters in Delhi for many years. This issue requires serious attention from the responsible authorities.
At the same time the average air quality in Punjab, where over 24,000 farm fires were reported this season, remained “moderate” in October even as Delhi witnessed “severe” pollution today and saw the implementation of curbs under the final stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP-IV).
The share of farm fires in Delhi’s PM2.5 jumped to 38% on Thursday. As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (safar), this is the highest percentage of farm fires adding to Delhi’s pollution this season.
With Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) of 450 just short of the “severe plus” category, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directed the authorities to ban the plying of diesel light motor vehicles (LMVs) in Delhi and adjoining NCR districts. The entry of trucks other than electric and CNG ones is banned.
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