Javadekar slams Kejriwal for politicising pollution

New Delhi: Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for "politicising" the air pollution of the national capital.

All stakeholders must participate in controlling the problem instead of blaming each other, he said here on Saturday.

Javedkar's reaction came after the Delhi government blamed stubble burning in neighbouring states, like Punjab and Haryana, for the bad air quality.

As per the latest reading, overall AQI (air quality index) in the national capital was 410.

"Air pollution has aggravated in the last 15 years. It's now being remedied by the Narendra Modi government. We have started inter-state meetings of National Capital Region (NCR) ministers and officials. All stakeholders need to act together and not blame each other," Javedkar tweeted.

In a series of tweet, Javedkar also slammed Kejriwal saying he was instigating students to write a letter to Haryana and Punjab Chief Ministers to show them in a bad light and present them as villains.

The Environment Minister said the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had deployed 45 teams in various parts of NCR, which we're giving alerts and suggesting remedies.

Javadekar, in another tweet, said, "Solution to air pollution is not 'switch on' and 'switch off' issue". Sustained efforts would be required to bring pollution down, he added. "All the state agencies and people need to participate in the effort to combat air pollution," the Minister said.

He also referred Delhi Metro Phase-IV project, stalled due to the Delhi government's denial to release funds, and said: "The Modi government fast-paced the Metro Rail development. Now with 300+ km network, it's providing environment-friendly public transport to over 50 lakh people. Sadly, the Delhi government didn't contribute its share and the court had intervened."

Javedkar said "60,000 large trucks, which were polluting Delhi to a large extent, have stopped entering Delhi because the Modi government completed Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways. Here also the Delhi government didn't pay its share and court had to intervene."

He also highlighted the central government's role in shutting the Badarpur Power Plant. The government introduced 24x7 monitoring of all polluting industry, converted nearly 3,000 industries to PNG instead of fossil fuel, and nearly 3,000 brick kilns had been converted to Zig-Zag technology, he said.