The BJP on Friday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of incompetence and making false promises as the city battles extremely high levels of pollution, and said he is more dangerous to people than the stifling air endangering them.
BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia noted that Mr Kejriwal had sought a year exactly on this day in 2022 to curb pollution in the national capital and dared him to hold a press conference on the issue to highlight what steps his government has taken.
He has been in power for close to nine years but has taken no solid step to deal with the menace of pollution, Mr Bhatia claimed.
"Arvind Kejriwal is known for corruption. He is also known for incompetence and false promises," he said, alleging that the entire country, besides Delhi, considers him as the most incompetent and idle chief minister.
"This stifling pollution in Delhi is dangerous to people but if someone is more dangerous, then it is Kejriwal. His sole aim is to practice petty, low-level politics," he added.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has run away from the Enforcement Directorate's summons to him in the alleged excise policy scam case but he should respond to people's questions, the BJP leader said.
Mr Kejriwal used to blame stubble burning in Punjab for Delhi's pollution and then had sought a year in 2022 to deal with it after the AAP came to power in Punjab, he said, while lashing out at him for the closure of a smog tower at Rajiv Chowk in Central Delhi.
The smog tower was projected as a solution to pollution but it has turned out to be a "tower of corruption" of Mr Kejriwal, he alleged.
Mr Bhatia also attacked Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai for allegedly blaming the Centre and "outsiders" for the city's pollution, saying such a poisonous mindset has led to the city becoming a gas chamber. He should apologise, the BJP spokesperson said.
Mr Rai had said that the large smog tower installed two years ago to reduce air pollution in the vicinity has been shut down arbitrarily on the orders of Delhi Pollution Control Committee Chairman (DPCC) Ashwani Kumar Bhatia claimed that the BJP-ruled Centre has extended all help to Delhi and other states such as Punjab and Haryana for tackling pollution.
Stubble-burning incidents had gone down in Haryana in 2022 but had risen in Punjab, he claimed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi government is likely to conduct a trial for artificial rain in May as part of its efforts to tackle air pollution, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to relax the ban imposed on the manufacture, storage and sale on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR noting air pollution levels had remained alarming for a considerable time.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced in the assembly on Wednesday that the Delhi government will introduce a new policy for issuing Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates to vehicles from other states, in a bid to tackle air pollution.
Children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid-childhood may have weaker connections between key brain regions that can highly impact their thinking and controlling capacity, according to a study.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sirsa has accused Arvind Kejriwal's AAP - in power before the BJP won the February election - of allowing more than 1.08 lakh vehicles to run on city roads despite each emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
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