NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party has demanded removal of Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar over the recent World Air Quality Report which stated that the top 22 out of 30 most-polluted cities across the world, including Delhi, are in India.
The slugfest between the BJP-led central government and the Delhi administration began soon after an international agency published a report on the world’s most polluted cities, in which the national capital was still the worst polluted capital in the world.
The AAP, while pinning the blame on the central government, stated that the BJP government needs to get serious on the issue of air pollution and that it needs to help the state government in tackling the situation.
Earlier Delhi Cabinet minister Gopal Rai stated that the Centre needs to take measures to stop stubble burning in neighboring states before the situation gets worse once again.
“They never meet the deadline to switch to environment-friendly mechanisms and Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar keeps giving them two-year extensions to meet this deadline. The environment minister has not done even one significant task to reduce pollution, and for this reason alone, he should be removed with immediate effect,” said Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP’s national spokesperson.
He went on stating various efforts taken by the Kejriwal government, which he claimed as having reduced pollution to some extent, and flayed the Centre for “not taking steps to reduce air pollution in the national capital”.