NEW DELHI: Amid rising pollution levels in the national capital, the BJP on Wednesday said the people of the city want the AAP Delhi government to take effective measures instead of playing the game of artificial rain. He said the AAP needs to convince the Punjab government to curb farm fires. The Congress also came down on the city government with pollution level reaching ‘severe plus’ zone.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that if the AAP government puts as much effort into addressing real issues as it does in making statements and writing letters about artificial rain, the situation in Delhi—and perhaps all of North India—could have improved significantly.
Referring to Environment Minister Gopal Rai’s letters to the Centre regarding artificial rain, Kapoor said, “Had he (Rai) written enough letters to his party’s Punjab government to stop stubble burning or to Delhi’s PWD department to repair broken roads, the outcomes could have been better.”
The BJP spokesperson questioned the promises made by Rai regarding artificial rain. Kapoor asked whether the Delhi government has any scientific feasibility report on this, and if such an experiment has ever been conducted in India. He also raised potential costs of this initiative and asked if the Delhi government has any estimate on the expenses.
Kapoor asked whether Rai is aware of the dangers posed by silver iodide, a chemical used in artificial rain, adding that the chemical will harm environment and degrade Delhi’s soil quality. “In the last three days alone, 1,925 incidents of stubble burning have been reported in Punjab. Since September 15 this year, a total of 9,925 incidents have occurred in Punjab, compared to 1,153 in Haryana and 3,308 in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav said AAP government is only blaming others for its own fault without telling people what steps it had taken to combat pollution. Yadav said Kejriwal should come clean on the highly polluted air, and explain why the air quality level has deteriorated to such a level.
“Kejriwal should tell people why his government failed to check air pollution in the past 10 years. He has only indulged in gimmicks. He had blamed stubble burning in Punjab for the spike in pollution when the Congress was in power in Punjab. Now he blames other neighbouring states after AAP came to power in Punjab,” Yadav said.