City, Punjab suffering due to AAP’s failure, says Sachdeva

NEW DELHI: Accusing the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled governments in Delhi and Punjab for failing to prevent air pollution, the Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Thursday wrote a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanding immediate remedial steps to clear the polluted air.

“It would be no exaggeration if we say that today people of Delhi & Punjab are suffering as both state governments headed by your Aam Aadmi Party are visionless on pollution issue and don’t know how to solve the issue of stubble burning,”

Sachdeva stated in the letter. Notably, Delhi continues to remain under the firm grip of pollution. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) at 442 in Bawana at 7 am, 418 in RK Puram, 441 in Jahangirpuri, 416 in in Dwarka, 415 in Alipur, 412 in Anand Vihar, 412 in in ITO and 401 at the Delhi airport.

Sachdeva said that the continuous burning of paddy crop residuals in Punjab, despite the Supreme Court’s ban, has turned the national capital into a gas chamber with the AQI level rising 8 to 10 times above the WHO’s limit.

“We do not wish to say that parali burning is happening only in Punjab but even the Supreme Court has noted and several expert reports have stated that 2/3rd of stubble burning cases between October 20 to November 15 have been reported from Punjab alone,” the letter read.

“It is shocking to note that despite Centre Government’s lead of providing machines & funds the Aam Aadmi Party headed Punjab Government has failed to take any concrete steps to stop parali burning in the state.” He pointed out that two main local sources of pollution in Delhi—dust and vehicular pollution— have also not been tackled by the government.