‘Centre Sits Idle as Entire North India Suffers’: Manish Sisodia Hits Out Over Air Pollution Crisis

Notably, the national capital recorded the season’s worst air day on Tuesday morning with the air quality index mounting to 'very poor' category at 304.

New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday lambasted the Centre for its inaction over the pollution issue entire North India faces every year, which has aggravated the coronavirus crisis this year.

“Pollution, especially that related to stubble burning, is not an issue for Delhi alone, it is for entire North India. Unfortunately, the central government did not do anything to resolve it. They sat idly throughout the year. Entire North India is suffering,” Sisodia said.

“Pollution plus Corona has become lethal for people. Centre sits idly all through the year, holds some meetings around this time and then doesn’t do anything after that. I would like to tell them that they will have to play a role to reduce pollution in north India,,” he added.

The deputy chief minister asserted that the Delhi government has made several efforts to curb the air pollution caused by stubble burning. Sisodia also appealed to the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) to look into the matter.

Notably, the national capital recorded the season’s worst air day on Tuesday morning with the air quality index mounting to ‘very poor’ category at 304.

As per the pollution control board, out of the 36 pollution monitoring stations, the air quality index in as many as 19 stations is in the ‘very poor’ category, 14 stations recorded the index in the ‘poor’ category, one recorded it in the ‘moderate’ category and two were non-functional.

The area near northwest Delhi’s Wazirpur recorded the highest AQI at 379, followed by 364 in Dwarka Sector 8 and Mundka. Lodhi road logged the cleanest air in the capital city at 193.

Nationwide, as many as nine cities have a very poor quality of air. Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi tops the charts, followed by Greater Noida, Panipat, Bhagpat, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Delhi, Agra and Noida.