CM holds meet on agricultural waste

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held several meetings over the last two days with agriculturists, entrepreneurs and industry experts to discuss possible solutions for the disposal of agriculture waste that is left behind after the harvest of paddy crop in the states of Punjab and Haryana. After the meetings on Wednesday, Kejriwal had tweeted, "I had several meetings today with experts. It is technologically and commercially possible to convert

stubble into CNG. This will provide jobs, additional income to farmers and solve our annual problem of pollution. However, it requires all governments to come together and work on this."

Delhi has seen an annual spike in air pollution, which the state government claims can be directly linked to the burning of agricultural waste in the months of October and November in the neighbouring states. "Although this issue has been identified some years ago, there has been no solution so far with lakhs of acres of farms being set on fire every year," said a statement from the chief minister's office.

With the air quality turning extremely unhealthy this year, the chief minister had invited several stakeholders to meet and discuss the potential solutions that can be offered for ecologically friendly disposal of farm waste. Kejriwal has maintained that the only way to put an end to the burning of stubble is to develop commercially viable processes to dispose off the paddy straw.

Speaking on the issue the experts said, "Not only is the ecologically friendly means of disposing parali economically viable, it also has the potential for massive job creation. All the state governments and the Centre should consider all the options available and work together to ensure that next year such an environmental disaster is not repeated."