“Pakistan To Be Blamed”: UP Pollution Official’s Claim As Toxic Air Chokes Noida

India: Toxic air in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida, Noida, and Ghaziabad is the result of Pakistan burning stubble, or agricultural waste, a state pollution board official declared this week.

DK Gupta, a Regional Officer with the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board in Greater Noida, blamed the neighbouring country – which is over 500 km from Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad, at its nearest point to the border – for the blanket of polluted air smothering Delhi and the national capital region every winter, fed in significant part by farm fires from UP, Haryana, and Punjab.

“This is the first time this year that all three cities of Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad saw ‘very poor’ air quality on the same day. And our neighbouring country… Pakistan… needs to be blamed,” he was quoted by The Times of India, “Increasing instances of stubble burning has sent toxic smoke across the border.”