Their answer to bad air: Shift ministries out of Delhi

NEW DELHI: Azad Bharatam, a new “liberal” political party, has called for shifting of Union government ministries, departments and constitutional authorities out of Delhi and relocating these to other states and Union Territories to reduce the capital’s population by 30-35 lakh and bring air pollution and congestion within tolerable limits.
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Elaborating on the plea, the party’s founder, Rakesh Agarwal, said a Delhiite died 10 years sooner due to air pollution, which also caused 30,000 deaths per annum — 20 times more than road fatalities.
“Delhi is the most polluted capital city in the world. It is a global shame and air pollution should be declared a national emergency just like UK’s Parliament did on May 1,” he said.
The party, however, feels that an exemption could be made for Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhavan, PMO, ministry of external affairs and the constitutional bench of Supreme Court. “Can anything be more important than life itself? The day is not far when every school-going child wears a mask attached to an oxygen tank. Showing commitment to environment and transport in election manifestoes is not enough; the political parties must frame and lay bare their plans to tackle the epidemic of air pollution and traffic jams,” Agarwal, an RTI activist working with auto rickshaw drivers and a former AAP member, said.
According to Rajiv Sharma, another party leader, they are looking for more experts to find out plausible solutions to Delhi’s problems.
“We have just started. We want to change governance. We will register 4-5 months later and contest the 2020 assembly elections. There are 8-10 different issues we will talk about. In a week or so, we will talk about how full statehood for Delhi can help people and ward off sealing drives,” Sharma said.
He added that they planned to bring serious governance into sharp focus while making negative politics irrelevant.