New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS): Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva has slammed the AAP-led Delhi and Punjab governments for "failing to control air pollution".
In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Sachdeva on Thursday said: "Due to the constant burning of paddy crop residual popularly known as parali in Punjab despite the Supreme Court's ban has turned the national capital into a gas chamber with the AQI level rising eight to 10 times above the WHO's suggestive level."
He said the brunt of this "excessively high AQI is being faced by the citizens of Delhi, especially children, senior citizens and pregnant women".
"...Even the Supreme Court has noted and several expert reports have stated that two-thirds of parali burning cases between October 20 to November 15 have been reported from Punjab alone," the BJP leader said.
"It is unfortunate that despite Supreme Court's ban, the Punjab government... has totally failed to bring down parali burning cases in the state. Even on Diwali day, almost a thousand parali burning cases were cited in Punjab with the largest number being reported from Sangrur -- the home district of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann," Sachdeva added.
The BJP leader further said that the Central government has given a "huge budget" of over Rs 3,400 crores to Punjab and other states to buy parali from farmers.
Sachdeva claimed that the AAP-led Punjab government has failed to take any concrete steps to stop parali burning in the state despite the Centre's assistance.
The BJP leader pointed out in the letter that a "very high volume of two-wheelers and four-wheelers that are not subscribing to pollution norms are plying in the city raising pollution levels, but your government has done nothing to lay them off the road".
He further said that the condition of roads in Delhi "is pathetic as both PWD and MCD are neither working on road maintenance nor doing any noticeable work to increase plantation on the roadsides".
Hitting out at the AAP government, the BJP leader said that the "dreams of Smog Towers sold by your government by installing towers at Kharak Singh Marg and Anand Vihar too have proven to be a failure".
"It won't be wrong to imagine what would have been the fate of Delhi if the Central government had not built the Eastern and Western periphels due to which lakhs of vehicles especially trucks not destined for Delhi now don't enter Delhi."
He said that in eight years "your government has failed people of Delhi on public transport too by buying not a single new bus for DTC even as half the fleet of 6,000 buses DTC had in 2015 has gone off road while around 3,000 buses that are running are overage and add to the road pollution".
"Kejriwal ji, we don't wish to score any political points on the pollution issue but as an experienced political party, we have time and again tried to extend our cooperation but strangely the health of the people of Delhi is paying the cost of the ego of your government," he said.