No smoke without fire. Plus other sources.

According to the Central Pollution Board, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, air pollution is in the severe range at Anand Vihar in Delhi this morning. People are being advised not to go out, especially in mornings and evenings, schools and colleges are closed, 5 out of 11 thermal power plants around the city are to cease operation, construction activities are banned till 21 November and trucks carrying non-essential goods are banned from entering Delhi, India TV. India's Supreme Court has got involved. "The Supreme Court on Saturday took a serious view of the severe air pollution in Delhi-NCR and suggested that if needed the government can declare a two-day lockdown to bring down the levels, which has been caused by stubble burning, vehicles, firecrackers, industries, dust," BS. Two days back, the court termed the situation an "emergency" and asked "Where are the drastic steps?" Times Now. The state government in Delhi is controlled by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which won the last election with an overwhelming majority of 62 out of 70 seats, wikipedia. Delhi government made the reasonable suggestion that locking down just Delhi may not work because polluting substances can easy drift in from surrounding areas in Haryana and UP. However, "The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that stubble burning by farmers contributes only 4-10% of Delhi's pollution," TOI. The central government, based in Delhi, is in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which won the last general election with an absolute majority of 303 out of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, wikipedia. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana set fire to stubble remaining after harvesting rice during this time of the year to prepare their fields quickly for the next crop. "Cumulative fire count for Punjab till November 16 stood at 74,015, higher than 72,373 recorded last year, as per data provided by Pawan Gupta, senior scientist, Earth Sciences at the Universities Space Research Association, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, USA," TIE. "The fire count from Haryana this year is 8,879, according to the data from VIIRS, provided by Gupta." The BJP rules Haryana in coalition with other parties, wikipedia, and Punjab, which the Congress won with absolute majority in 2017, wikipedia, has to hold election to its assembly before 17 March 2022, which the BJP would dearly love to win, wikipedia. "Between October 20 and November 14 this year, Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) has been in the severe zone (401-500) on seven days. On each of these days, the contribution of farm fires to Delhi's PM 2.5 contribution was between 26%-48%," HT. The government is taking an average for the whole year, which gives a false impression. Since 2018, rise in pollution in Delhi has coincided with the number of farm fires. Use of combined harvesters leaves long stubble, wrote Sayantan Bera. To conserve water, farmers have been told to delay planting of rice to take advantage of monsoon rains in July and August which leaves little time to prepare fields for the next crop of wheat. Most important, it costs Rs 6,500 per hectare to use crop residue management machines because of the high price of diesel. Despite recent reduction in excise duty, diesel costs Rs 80.90 in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana, ET. A matchstick costs nothing. However, farmers are vote bank, so must be humored. No smoke without fire. Can't be hidden.