Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Punjab Media In-charge Baltej Pannu on Tuesday, 3 November sharply rebuked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for holding Punjab's farmers responsible for Delhi's worsening air pollution, arguing that the party is ignoring both the state government's stubble-management progress and the multiple pollution sources within the national capital itself.

Direct Attack on Delhi's Environment Minister

Pannu trained his fire specifically on Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, accusing BJP leaders of scapegoating Punjab's farming community instead of confronting Delhi's own pollution drivers. He challenged Sirsa and other BJP leaders to visit Punjab and 'witness the ground reality instead of spreading propaganda.'

'Even before the paddy harvesting season had properly begun, certain leaders had started running a campaign to defame Punjab for Delhi's pollution,' Pannu said. He questioned the physical plausibility of the blame, asking: 'How can smoke from Punjab supposedly cross Haryana and reach Delhi through some imaginary pipeline so quickly?'

Data on Stubble-Burning Decline and CRM Machines

Citing Parliament's own records and a statement by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Pannu noted that stubble-burning incidents in Punjab declined by 80 per cent last year. He said the Bhagwant Mann-led state government has deployed more than 21,000 Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines for paddy stubble handling, including 14,274 Super Seeders — described as the most popular among farmers — along with Mulchers, MB Ploughs, and Baling Machines. Punjab, he claimed, ranks among leading states in agricultural machinery usage.

Farmers are reportedly accessing these machines through government subsidies of 50 to 80 per cent, and private operators are also renting out machinery to expand access to smaller cultivators.

Stubble Bales and Industrial Use

Pannu pointed to visible evidence along major highway corridors — from Zirakpur to Bathinda, Chandigarh to Ludhiana, Mohali to Sirhind, and on the Amritsar highway — where large quantities of paddy stubble have been collected and compressed into bales. 'These bales are being transported to industries and used as raw material rather than being burnt in fields,' he said.

Centre's Refusal on Cost-Sharing and the Haryana Question

The AAP leader also reminded the Centre that it had declined to share the financial burden of stubble management even after the state government offered to split costs. He argued that BJP leaders must answer for Delhi's pollution rather than redirecting blame northward.

Pannu also questioned the selective scrutiny applied to Punjab, asking why Haryana — which has fewer stubble-management machines — is not being held to the same standard. He further pushed back on the geography of the blame: 'Travelling from Punjab to Delhi takes at least four to five hours by road. The simplistic claim that smoke from Punjab directly reaches Delhi is an attempt to mislead people rather than an evidence-based explanation.'

This political exchange comes amid the annual winter pollution crisis in Delhi, a recurring flashpoint between the AAP-governed state and the BJP at the Centre. With stubble-burning data and parliamentary statements now being cited on both sides, the dispute is likely to intensify as the peak harvest season progresses.