Amarinder's missive to PM Modi

Chandigarh: Expressing deep anguish and anger at the unprecedented situation triggered by the growing air pollution in Delhi, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday wrote an emotional letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, underlining the need for evolving a consensus on tackling the issue, rising above political affiliations and regional considerations.

In his letter, the Chief Minister said, "No Indian, and definitely no person in Punjab, is oblivious to the misery of our brethren in the national capital, whatever many around the country might have been led to believe."

Pointing out that his own children and grandchildren living in Delhi, were currently sharing the plight of the lakhs of people in the national capital as a result of the toxic air enveloping the city, he said the prevailing situation "has exposed the hollowness of our claims of being a progressive and developed nation."

"How can a country be called developed when its capital city has been reduced to a gas chamber, not by any natural disaster but a series of man-made ones?," he asked.

Making it clear that he had no intent of brushing his hands off Punjab's responsibility in this tragic state of affairs, the Chief Minister, however, said that the entire country, including Delhi itself as well as the government at the Centre, had allowed "this state of affairs to emerge and sustain, with our various acts of commission and omission."

Admitting that stubble fires, supported by the winds blowing in the wrong direction, were contributing to the toxic levels of air pollution that prevail today in Delhi, the Chief Minister, at the same time, noted that data from several independent agencies had pointed out that large-scale industrial pollution, the traffic overload, the excessive construction activity taking place in Delhi were equally, if not more, to blame.