New Delhi: BJP on Wednesday demanded that Delhi govt order the closure of all schools up to Class V in view of the worsening air pollution situation. It criticised AAP over the issue, claiming the city had become a gas chamber. This prompted a strong response from AAP, which accused BJP of playing poltiics over the issue.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged that AAP govt had "completely failed" to control pollution in the city, adding that PM 2.5 levels had crossed 400 and PM10 levels were past the 1,000 mark. "Delhi has become a gas chamber where everyone is coughing and complaining of trouble in breathing," he said.
Children and the elderly were the biggest victims of bad air, he said, and alleged that there were no govt clinics offering medication to counter the harmful effects of pollution. Immediate arrangements must be made to distribute medicines to protect people against pollution, Sachdeva demanded. He said the capital was also at a greater risk of water and mosquito-borne illnesses.
He claimed that in a 4-5 km radius around each of Delhi's three landfill sites, the air became doubly toxic, and a report on the Okhla landfill indicated the presence of cancer-causing particles in the air. "Whether it's smoke from crop burning in Punjab, dust from broken roads, or construction sites running in violation of restrictions, all these factors have turned life in Delhi into a nightmare," he alleged. Sachdeva said data from MCD indicated that cases of chikungunya and malaria were spreading twice as fast this year compared with 2023. Sachdeva said it would not be an exaggeration to say that Delhi govt's healthcare model had failed, and under Atishi's leadership, the pollution-control efforts were even worse than those under Arvind Kejriwal's previous administration.
Responding to the allegations, AAP said: "BJP should avoid creating unnecessary panic." It alleged that the BJP-led central govt had approved the expansion of the Okhla landfill site in Jan 2023. "The matter is pending in court. Permission for expansion can only be granted if all the required norms under Environment Protection Act are fully met. If the landfill site is hazardous, as claimed, why did BJP's ministry of environment grant permission for its expansion," said the party.
Delhi govt was the only administration in the country that had been consistently fighting war against pollution head-on and would continue to do so, it claimed. "BJP should stop playing dirty politics over it," it added.