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Comment by prashantsengar | Hacker News Reader

Nobody is willing to do it because:

1. Lack of political willpower. It is still not considered to be a very high priority thing by those in power, and even the people who live in the region.

2. Again, due to politicians, bureaucracy, and their corruption. Example -

> In two years, Delhi (state govt^) spent Rs 68 lakh on stubble decomposer, Rs 23 crore to advertise it [0]

> ‘No other option’ — as its fields turn black & skies smoky, why Punjab won’t stop burning stubble [1]

[0]: https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/05/11/in-two-years-delhi-go...

[2]: https://theprint.in/agriculture/no-other-option-as-its-field...

^: Not in the original article headline

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TIL that one crore is equal to 100 lakhs. In other words, they spent 2300/68 ~ 34x more on advertising than on fixing the problem.

Pardon my ignorance of the local politics but I would have assumed that as the capital, this would have been sorted out posthaste

Delhi is a separate state* from Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh (states where stubble burning is very common). Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh's politicans won't piss off the farmer bloc to help Delhi. It's the equivalent of the political battles all the western states are fighting over the Colorado River.

* yes it's technically a Union Territory but it's functionally a state

But many cities from these states also face high pollution.

Noida, Ghaziabad (UP), Gurugram (Haryana) are a few examples which are highly populated. Noida is slowly growing as UP's manufactoring hub, already being its IT hub. Gurugram is another IT hub.

A lot of this problem is also because of the apathy of the working class who reside in these cities.

We have to learn the art of activism :(

How many votes can Gurgaon's urban population bring? Not as much as Kisan Sabhas in Sohna, Pataudi, Farrukhnagar, and Manesar. How many votes can urban NOIDA or Ghaziabad voters bring to UP Legislative elections? Almost nothing compared to farmers outside of either. Activism is strong in India - the kind of person who lives in a Housing Society in Noida, Gurgaon, or Ghaziabad doesn't know or care to partake in Gheraos, Bandhs, or Dharns to push their point through.

These are IT and manufacturing hubs and the respective State governments and the Centre gives them special attention because they want industries and jobs.

Maybe if the elites start taking their lives more seriously and threaten to move away from these cities we might start seeing some action.

> the kind of person who lives in a Housing Society in Noida, Gurgaon, or Ghaziabad doesn't know or care to partake in Gheraos, Bandhs, or Dharns to push their point through.

That's what I wanted to say with my earlier comment.

Yep, but Gurgaon's urban voters don't impact Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections. If I wanna become CM of Haryana, do I want to make 1 MLA's constituent's happy or 3 MLA's constituent's happy. All farmers know burning stubble is bad, but no government (Punjab, Haryana, UP) is providing the money to get rotavators. The only way this solution is solved is by including the majority in the conversation. And if they aren't, well that's Indian politics as you know.

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