Kejriwal government looks to shift blame concerning pollution management on Centre: BJP

New Delhi [India], October 17 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi on Saturday accused Kejriwal government of not doing enough to curb pollution levels in the national capital and trying to shift the blame on the Centre for a dip in air quality in the national capital.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said SAFAR has reported that the AQI in New Delhi improved on Friday despite the factor of stubble burning.
"This confirms the findings of 2015 IIT Kanpur study which stated that the main factors that contribute to Air pollution in Delhi are road dust, vehicles, domestic sources and so on. This means 70 per cent of Delhi's air pollution problems are being caused by local factors. Why then does the Delhi government always look towards Punjab and Haryana to shift the blame of pollution management on the Centre?" she asked.
Sharma also alleged that the Delhi government had failed to manage road dust, had not paid the salaries of MCD workers, had not put a ban on construction and had also not constructed a smog tower.
She accused the government of giving priority to publicity.
"The truth is that apart from earmarking Rs 1,600 crore to tackle the problem of air pollution in Delhi-NCR and stubble burning, the central government has undertaken the construction of Eastern and Western peripheral expressway, closed the Badarpur and Panipat Thermal Power Plant, switched from BS4 to BS6 fuel, backed the innovation of Pusa decomposer for crop residue and subsidized electric vehicles," she said.
She also mentioned that Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had held multiple meetings with the environment ministers of five states to tackle issues related to pollution.
"When Delhi government allocates a meagre Rs 52 crore in a Rs 65,000 crore budget for the environment, spends nothing from the Rs 787 crore from the environment cess it received in 2017, admittedly rents only three road vacuum cleaning machines but spends upwards of Rs 73 crore on advertisements and self-promotion within the months of July and August, it is clear where CM Kejriwal's priorities lie," she alleged.
The BJP leader said the Haryana government has announced a programme to manage crop residue.
"The burning question in the issue of stubble burning is what has the Punjab government done to deal with the problem? she asked. (ANI)