CS meets states' officials in bid to curb pollution

The Cabinet Secretary recently held a meeting with the Chief Secretaries and other senior officers of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, and NCT of Delhi to discuss the current air pollution crisis. The meeting was also attended by the Chairman of the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM) and Secretaries of Ministries of Environment & Forests, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Power.

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The meeting discussed the data provided by CAQM and the inputs provided by the state governments. It emerged that the current crisis situation is majorly on account of stubble burning. Stubble burning contributed to 38% of the air pollution level on November 8. For the period from September 15 to November 7, a total of 22,644 stubble burning events have been recorded, out of which 20,978 (93%) were in Punjab and 1,605 (7%) in Haryana.