Delhi government did nothing to curb air pollution: BJP MP

BJP MP Pravesh Verma on Tuesday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of not doing anything to curb air pollution in the city and criticised him for blaming farmers of neighbouring states for the problem. Participating in a discussion on "Air Pollution and Climate Change" in the Lok Sabha, the West Delhi MP also slammed the AAP government for ignoring major sources of pollution, including vehicles and dust.

Verma was asked by the Chair not to name the Delhi chief minister. Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have been grappling with hazardous levels of air pollution since late October. The Delhi government has repeatedly asserted that stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring states contributes significantly to the pollution in the national capital.

Verma claimed Rs 600 crore was spent by the Delhi government on advertisements but little had been actually done to curb pollution. By blaming the farmers in villages for pollution, he said, the Delhi government was only widening the urban-rural divide. The BJP MP claimed that the AAP government had spent Rs 70 crore on publicising the odd-even road rationing scheme but did not take steps to increase the number of public buses.

People are using personal vehicles due to poor public transport facilities, which is adding to the pollution, he said. Earlier the chief minister used to cough, but now the entire city and members of the House are coughing, he added. Verma claimed that the situation in the national capital has reached a point where many residents want to leave Delhi.

He said the Delhi chief minister purchased 50 lakh pollution masks that "are of no use to the people". Verma also appealed to the members of the House to donate Rs 2 crore from their Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme fund for setting up pollution control towers in Delhi as they spend 200 days of the year in the city. Speaking about the pollution of Yamuna, the BJP leader criticised the Delhi government for not formulating an industrial policy to ensure that untreated waste is not pumped into the river.