The Congress on Monday alleged that after the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in the Centre and the Capital respectively, the pollution in India has increased unchecked.

Senior party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the BJP and AAP are only interested in scoring political points. "We saw the physical violence yesterday, while an iconic bridge conceptualised by the Congress was being inaugurated. We saw the sheer blame game on pollution last year. We have been witnessing how both parties indulge in hollow rhetoric without concrete action against air pollution," said Singhvi.

He said that this is a serious decline from 2013, under the Congress-led Sheila Dikshit government, when Delhi was named the greenest Capital in the world. "Compared to previous years, the Capital's forest cover had gone up by 22 per cent. There is now a virtual atmospheric emergency in NCR, with the Air Quality Index reaching alarming hazardous levels. It has deteriorated to the point where Delhi has five seasons now, the fifth being the pollution season," said Singhvi.

Singhvi further said that while the BJP and the AAP are firefighting with emergency and temporary solutions, he suggested some workable solutions. "The construction of the Phase 4 of the Metro project has to begin. There are ten phases of the Metro, as conceptualised by the previous Congress government, and any inaction on that will only affect the people of Delhi," he said.

He further suggested that the ministry of railways must seriously examine reviving the 35 km ring railway in Delhi to try and integrate it with Delhi's public transport network. He also said that since trucks are a major source of vehicular pollution, the railways should be roped in to strengthen freight movement and all major mandis should be connected to the network. Major wholesale markets like Azadpur, Sadar Bazar and Okhla are already on this network.

Another suggestion he made was to make coal-based power plants comply with pollution norms and that the Central and Delhi government buy electricity from gas-based power plants to fight air pollution.

WAR OF WORDS

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said AAP and BJP are just involved in war of words. He said that this is a serious decline from 2013, under the Congress-led Sheila Dikshit government, when Delhi was named the greenest Capital in the world