Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday told his Delhi counterpart to stop playing “pollution politics” and asked him what steps he had taken to end stubble burning in the national Capital.

A severe smog has enveloped Delhi and several other north Indian cities since November 7. The air quality deteriorated on Monday after marginally improving over the weekend. The Air Quality Index reading in several areas in Delhi was above 500. The pollution might worsen from November 15 as light rain is expected in the city.

Kejriwal has blamed the burning of crop stubble in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab for most of the pollution.

In a letter dated November 10 to the Delhi chief minister, Khattar said, “I believe no single person, organisation or government can improve the quality of air. Such collective problems require everyone to do their bit.” More importantly, he said, a strong mechanism was needed to enhance the outcome of such constructive steps.

The bedrock of such a mechanism is a “mindset” where “words come out from the depth of truth”, the Haryana chief minister said, adding that Kejriwal’s letter inviting Khattar and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for discussions on reducing pollution contained no hint of such a mindset.

“In fact, your reference to the helplessness of farmers in Punjab and Haryana in stubble burning betrays an inability to rise above short-term electoral interests,” the Haryana chief minister wrote. Khattar also claimed that satellite imagery shows a reduction in stubble burning in Haryana since 2014.

Khattar said he was likely to be in Delhi on November 13 and 14. “You may feel free to call me to fine tune a mutually convenient date, time and venue for the meeting,” he wrote.

“We have taken all possible steps in Haryana. We have also requested people burning stubble to not do so,” Khattar said, alleging that Punjab is the bigger culprit.

Kejriwal had said on Wednesday that he would like to meet Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to resolve the pollution crisis in Delhi, caused by stubble burning in the neighbouring states. He wrote that the states needed to find an economically viable alternative to the disposal of crop stubble, which farmers end up burning.

On Thursday, Singh called Kejriwal a “peculiar person” who expresses his views without an understanding of the problem. “If I have two crore tonnes of paddy straw, and I ask the farmer to store this, farms will be covered with the straw,” the Punjab chief minister said. “Kejriwal doesn’t understand this.”