Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for targetting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led government for deteriorating air quality in the national capital.
"The environment situation is very unfortunate in Delhi. Till October 10, the pollution level in Delhi was 25 per cent lower thanks to the concerted efforts of Kejriwal and his government. It is the BJP governments, which are polluting the environment with their polluted mindset," Sigh said while speaking to ANI.
Boasting the efforts taken by the AAP government to check air pollution, he said: "We have stopped all the construction sites in Delhi, carried out plantation drives on a huge scale, stopped the thermal power plants, and are implementing the odd-even scheme for the third time."
He said Delhi is suffering due to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. "The BJP government, be it at the Centre or in the state like Haryana, did nothing to address the issue of stubble burning. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar did not call any meeting to discuss the situation or to take any preventive measure," he alleged.
Singh said if stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana cannot be stopped by their respective governments, then what can Kejriwal do.
He said the opposition and the government at the Centre are just "politicising the air quality issue."
Taking cognisance of air pollution levels in Delhi-NCR having crossed the 'hazardous' category, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority on Friday declared a public health emergency.
The environment body has stated that the air quality inDelhi-NCR is now at the severe-plus level and has become 'hazardous' and will have an adverse health impact on all, particularly the children.
The city-state government has also prohibited the construction activities in Delhi-NCR till the morning of November 5.
The stubble fire percentage contribution of Delhi's air quality, which has touched the season's highest share of 35 per cent on October 30, is predicted to be 27 per cent for today and 25 per cent on November 1.
In the wake of pollution, Kejriwal had in September announced the third season of the odd-even vehicle scheme will come into effect for 12 days starting November 4 in Delhi. The schools in Delhi will also remain closed till November 5.
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