Headless chicken govts in Centre, Delhi: Congress

New Delhi [India], Nov 5 (ANI): Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for playing the blame game over the deteriorating air quality in the national capital, the Congress on Monday termed the current governments at the Centre and in Delhi as "headless chicken".
"Delhi now has five seasons - fifth one is the 'pollution season'. Air pollution is the new tobacco. North Delhi is suffering from a disease called 'death by breadth'. BJP and AAP are enjoying being in power, while the common man is suffering due to the pollution," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told media here.
"What is the point of talking about Swachh Bharat every minute? The most important aspect of Swachh Bharat must be combating this pollution. How can you have Swachh Bharat co-exist with this level of pollution? How can the Prime Minister be silent? Varanasi, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Kanpur are most polluted cities across the world today. As many as 10 lakh people die every year in India because of pollution, according to World Heath Organisation," he added.
Singhvi stated that the situation in Delhi was not the same when Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister. "We have headless chicken governments both in the Centre and Delhi as far as pollution is concerned. The people of Delhi have lost all hope in AAP or BJP, they are only interested in short-term piecemeal measures which they can advertise and earn cheap brownie political points, instead of taking concrete long-term effective measures to counter the dreaded pollution season of Delhi," he said.
"AAP is blaming Punjab's stubble burning, but the fact is that stubble burning has now come down by 72 per cent this year, instead BJP ruled Haryana and Delhi ruled AAP is seeing much more cases of stubble burning," he added.
The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 342, which falls in the "very poor" category, according to data of System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).
An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 is marked as severe/hazardous. (ANI)