New Delhi: Expressing grave concern over Delhi witnessing an emergency situation due to alarming pollution level, Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Sunday said the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has failed to take remedial measures to tackle the same.
Kumar told ANI the single most important challenge apart from the situation in Kashmir and terrorism is the issue of climate change and environmental pollution.
"It is absolutely true that the environmental pollution in Delhi was never as grave as it is today and despite the fact that the Standing Committee of the Parliament had unanimously junked the TSR Subramanian Committee report that has sought to further liberalize the environmental protection laws the situation seems to be going from bad to worse," said Kumar.
"This government instead of tightening the environmental laws is seeking to further dilute the environment protection laws in negation of the unanimous recommendations of the Standing Committee on the Parliament," he added.
The Congress leader further said the Supreme Court should take suo moto cognisance in public interest and issue binding instruction to all concerned authorities.
"The reason for pollution is not limited to situation to Delhi alone it has a direct baring with reference to the stubble burning in the states of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh," he added.
Kejriwal today announced a list of measures to be enforced by the state government to curb the soaring pollution in the national capital, including putting all construction projects across the city on hold for the next five days and ordering the shutdown of all schools for the next three days.
Meanwhile, Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave stated that according to the satellite images by ISRO, it was clear that the neighbouring states were responsible for only 20 percent of the pollution, whereas the remaining 80 percent was strictly from Delhi and mainly due to its garbage problem.
However, the Delhi Government remained adamant on its stand that crop burning by the neighbouring states was the main contributor towards the 'gas chamber' like situation in the city.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain stated the source of pollution is not from within Delhi but from its neighbouring states.
