DW BUREAU / Chandigarh In order to hide its failures, the centre government is accusing Punjab of spreading pollution by burning stubble. Today, during a press conference here at Punjab Bhawan, Punjab Cabinet Ministers Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer lashing out at the centre government on the issue said that the centre government is highlighting the issue of stubble burning to divert people's attention from the unfortunate incident that took place in Gujarat. Both the ministers said that the Haryana Chief Minister is spreading misleading propaganda against Punjab on this issue of stubble burning. They said that as per Central Pollution Controll Board Punjab's Air Quality Index is better than Haryana.The Ministers further said that according to the data till date, many cities of Haryana are in the first 10 cities in the list of the most polluted cities in India, including Hisar, Faridabad, Sirsa, Rohtak, Sonepat and Bhiwani etc., while from Punjab no city is in the first 10 of this list. This clearly shows that stubble is being set on fire more in Haryana than in Punjab. They also accused the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi of playing politics at the behest of the Centre government on the issue of stubble burning who is writing letters to the Chief Minister of Punjab on this matter without any authority. Kuldeep Dhaliwal and Meet Hayer said that stubble burning and crop residue management is a joint issue of many states of North India, but the centre government is playing politics instead of supporting Punjab in this matter. They said that Punjab and Delhi government prepared a proposal, which was sent to the centre government to give assistance of Rs 2500 per acre to the farmers for crop residue management and stubble management, as per the proposal the Punjab government had to contribute Rs 500, the Delhi government also Rs 500 and the central government to contribute Rs 1500, but the central government rejected this proposal. The ministers said that Punjab is a state which made the country self-reliant and for this cause polluted its air, water and land, but now when it was time to pay back, the centre government has backtracked from helping the farmers of the state, instead the centre government is blaming Punjab of spreading pollution. Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal said that due to the concrete and sincere efforts, cases of stubble burning have fallen down enormously. (editor@dailyworld.in)