Smog delays flight, Sheila blames it on stubble burning

Poor visibility due to smog in Ludhiana on Saturday delayed Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's flight and fuelled another round of blame game on pollution caused by paddy stubble burning in Punjab.

Smog delays flight, Sheila blames it on stubble burning

LUDHIANA: Poor visibility due to smog in Ludhiana on Saturday delayed Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's flight and fuelled another round of blame game on pollution caused by paddy stubble burning in Punjab.

The private Bombardier BD-700 Global Express carrying Dikshit and a leading telecom industrialist family was scheduled to arrive at 9.45am but landed at 12:24pm due to low visibility at Halwara airport near here.

Later Dikshit told mediapersons, "Now, I completely believe what Nasa experts found out on burning of paddy straw in Punjab. In their own state, there is so much smoke and pollution that our flight was held up for so long before we got clearance from the Halwara airport."

Dikshit, who holds the environment portfolio, also said her government had enough facts to present a case in the Supreme Court that the smog crisis in Delhi was not because of vehicular pollution. On November 9, the apex court had expressed concern over the rising pollution and smog in the Capital. It had asked the Delhi government to find ways to deal with it. However, Dikshit had blamed the stubble burning in Punjab for pollution in Delhi.

Following the delay, Dikshit, who was supposed to first visit a school for underprivileged kids at Mohi near Halwara, had to skip the event and rush to Nehru Sidhant Kender Trust, for another programme.

Stubble burning in lakhs of agricultural fields by Punjab farmers had caught the attention of Nasa recently when its Aqua satellite sent images of the state's agri farms in which entire Punjab appeared to be literally on fire.

Download
The Economic Times Business News App
for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App
for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
READ MORE
ADVERTISEMENT

READ MORE:

LOGIN & CLAIM

50 TIMESPOINTS

More from our Partners

Loading next story
Business News › News › Environment › Pollution › Smog delays flight, Sheila blames it on stubble burning
Text Size:AAA
Success
This article has been saved

*

+