Delhi air pollution: Congress releases white paper on pollution

Citing World Bank studies, Tharoor said 8.5 per cent of the country’s GDP was affected by the “damage caused by air pollution”. The white paper was prepared by the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) — a wing of the Congress party.

By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Published: December 5, 2017 1:54 am
Shashi Tharoor, ICJ election, International Court of Justice, UK, Indian, Dalveer Bhandari, Security Council, General Assembly, india news, un reform, indian express Shashi Tharoor. (EXPRESS PHOTO BY SUBHAM DUTTA/File)

Launching a ‘white paper on air pollution in Delhi’, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Monday said the Centre and the state government were not doing enough to tackle the crisis.

“Yesterday, we had the astonishing situation… when the Sri Lankan team literally said they could not continue playing in Feroz Shah Kotla because they were unable to breathe… There was a similar situation 20 years earlier when the Australian Cricket team made a similar complaint,” he said.

Citing World Bank studies, Tharoor said 8.5 per cent of the country’s GDP was affected by the “damage caused by air pollution”.

The white paper was prepared by the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) — a wing of the Congress party. The AIPC also filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court Monday, seeking directions to the Centre and the Delhi government to subsidise Metro fares after the hike. It also said the state government should buy 12,000 buses in a “time-bound manner”.