The Delhi Congress on Tuesday demanded that both the BJP government at the Centre and the AAP government in Delhi should take steps on a war-footing to control pollution levels in the Capital to give relief to people suffering from respiratory problems.
“Both these governments have failed to learn from past experience to address this severe problem, which has become one of the major reasons for 25 deaths per day in Delhi due to respiratory and lung diseases. It is a very serious matter,” said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee.
Internal reasons
Ms. Mukherjee said major causes of pollution in the city were due to internal reasons like transport and industries, and that the State and Central governments were engaging in their usual blame game without owning up responsibility for the root cause of pollution in Delhi.
“Stubble burning in the neighbouring States of Haryana and Punjab are one of the major contributory factors for air pollution in Delhi but contributes only 11% of the pollution, and in that too, the BJP-ruled Haryana was a major culprit,” she said.
Vehicular pollution
The Delhi Congress said people in Delhi have been using various modes of transport due to the decline of public transport as there are only 3,921 DTC buses on Delhi roads now, while the number of DTC buses during the Congress regime in Delhi in 2014 was 5,223 which has contributed to vehicular pollution.
Ms. Mukherjee said, “The steep hike in the fare of Delhi Metro has forced commuters to look for different modes of cheaper transport which has also contributed to the pollution levels going up in Delhi. She said the Phase-III of the Metro was supposed to be completed in September, 2016, while there is no news about when the Phase-IV of the Metro will start.”