NEW DELHI: State BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said he is not against the Odd-Even road-rationing scheme of the AAP government but the lack of public transport, for which the Arvind Kejriwal government “did nothing”.
Tiwari said the Delhi government should have first strengthened the public transport, if it wanted to check the vehicular air pollution. “We are not against the Odd-Even, but we will become a supporter of it only after the government strengthens public transport,” he said.
“People have to wait for long hours for buses. There are people who use cars as they don’t have proper public transport connectivity. Kejriwal could have given proper buses and have ensured that they run on all routes before implementing the Odd-Even.”
Also a member of Lok Sabha from the North East Delhi constituency, Tiwari accused the Kejriwal government of not doing any work to check the air pollution here and said all they did was Odd-Even and still the AQI was so high.
On being asked about Member of Parliament from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir being missing from a meeting of a parliamentary standing committee to discuss the rising levels of air pollution in the national capital, Tiwari said the AAP cannot blame an MP for air pollution.
“Air pollution is Kejriwal’s responsibility. If parliamentarians are supposed to run Delhi then Kejriwal should step down. MPs will run it.
“The AAP government is not giving funds to the MCD. We are getting funds from the Centre. Also, the MPs are not responsible for the pollution nor for its solutions,” he added
Rationing a gimmick, says BJP
State BJP leaders on Friday held a protest against the Odd-Even scheme for failing to curb air pollution. Calling it a gimmick, BJP said that the SC reprimanded the AAP government for being unable to control local contributors to air pollution. BJP MP Vijay Goel said if the scheme is implemented now, people will protest against it.
(With PTI inputs)