PM Modi intervenes: Farmers to get stubble help, projects expedited

To tackle the problem of stubble burning in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haraya and to reduce the pollution problem in the national capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on Wednesday in which he directed the Agriculture Ministry to give priority to the farmers of these states in the distribution of equipment to prevent such occurrences. Prime Minister said that Delhi-Meerut Expressway should be completed by the revised timeline of May 2020. He implored that long-delayed projects should be expedited by respective states. He also directed that regular reports on the progress of such projects be sent to his office. PM Modi reviewed the progress of infrastructure connectivity projects including Katra-Banihal Railway Line and gave explicit instructions on speedy completion of the project by next year.

SC slammed concerned authorities for high pollution levels

The meeting comes at a time when the Supreme Court pulled up authorities for high pollution levels in Delhi and surrounding areas. It also said the state governments do not bother about people, they "have no right to be in power"."You have forgotten the concept of welfare government, (you are) not bothered about poor people, this is very unfortunate," said the apex court addressing concerned authorities and stated that "If state governments don't bother about people, you have no right to be in power."

PM Modi chairs meeting on pollution

On Tuesday as well, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the dangerous air-quality levels in north India where residents continued to grapple with severe levels of pollution. He also reviewed the situation arising due to cyclone conditions in parts of western India, said PMO in a tweet. 

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Delhi's pollution levels reduced but air quality still 'poor'

The share of stubble burning in Delhi's pollution dropped to 3% on Wednesday due to a change in the wind direction, according to the government's air quality monitoring and forecasting service SAFAR. Punjab had on Tuesday recorded the season's highest farm fire count of 6,668 despite a recent Supreme Court order to completely halt stubble burning. SAFAR said, "A change in the wind direction has led to a very low biomass plume intrusion in spite of the fact that the fire count observed yesterday was very high." It said Delhi's overall air quality index improved significantly (from very poor to poor) on Wednesday, more rapidly than predicted. "An approaching western disturbance brought cleaner air to the region. Isolated thundershower is expected for the next two days and the wind direction is likely to be southeasterly on November 7. So, no biomass intrusion," it said.

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