Ministers of four states skip meet on Delhi pollution

New Delhi: Steps taken by states to control stubble burning “are far from satisfactory”, Union minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday as environment ministers of four states around Delhi, including Haryana and Punjab, where the practice is rampant, skipped a crucial meet to discuss measures to stop air pollution levels from deteriorating further.

In the absence of ministers, officials from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and Delhi’s environment minister Imran Hussain took part in the meet where Mr Vardhan asked the Delhi government to ensure 100 per cent stop on open burning of domestic and industrial wastes.

The absence of environment ministers from other states upset Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who tweeted, “Why didn’t ministers from other states attend? Its a collective problem and I urge everyone to please work together”.

Mr Vardhan said that despite a decrease in incidents of stubble burning by 30 per cent as compared to the previous year more still needs to be done.