NEW DELHI: On the first day of the winter session of the Delhi Assembly on Monday, the BJP MLAs were seen carrying oxygen cylinders inside the House to protest against the alleged inaction of the AAP government to prevent air pollution. The MLAs wore placards around their necks that read People of Delhi are dying of toxic air, shame on you Kejriwal, you resign, you resign).
Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that the city has become a gas chamber. People are suffering from cancer and lung diseases due to pollution. Hospitals in Delhi are full of patients with respiratory diseases.
Doctors say that cases of cough and pneumonia are spreading rapidly in the capital and the biggest reason for this is the pollution of Delhi. The number of children and elderly people is very high among these patients. Especially after corona disease, people are getting more lung diseases due to pollution, but the government’s attention is not on controlling pollution.
He said that the Delhi government has neither paid any attention to public transport nor to the roads. Not a single DTC bus has been purchased in Delhi for eight years. The electric buses that have come in the last few months have also been given by the Central Government. The entire fleet of 3,760 buses of DTC has completed its life. Due to the non-availability of public transport, people bring their vehicles on the roads, adding to the pollution woes.
BJP MLA Vijendra Gupta said that due to the non-repair of Delhi’s roads, the pollution of PM 2.5 and PM 10 i.e. dust particles is continuously increasing. Even the Supreme Court reprimanded the Kejriwal government for this pollution, but the government is not waking up from its deep sleep. This is the reason why Delhi has become the most polluted city not only in the country but also in the world.
The protesting MLAs said that the Kejriwal government publicised several steps to reduce pollution, but these were only on paper. Neither the smog towers worked, nor adequate arrangements for mechanical sweeping were made, nor real-time pollution factors could be detected. “The opposition was not given a chance to raise its voice within the assembly. That is why the opposition has been forced to adopt this way to draw attention to the failure of the Kejriwal government,” they added.