Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed that his Government has succeeded in reducing the city’s PM levels by around 30 per cent thus improving the air quality from ‘poor’ to ‘good’. During his address at ‘Paryavaran Sammelan’, at Thyagaraja Stadium, Chief Minister Arving Kejriwal said Delhi is only city where pollution levels have got better without slowing down the speed of development and developmental activities.
“Compared to 2016, in 2022, there has been a reduction of 30% in PM 10 and PM 2.5 levels in the city over the last 7 years,” he said. In his address, the Chief Minister also said that the tree cover percentage (of total land area) in the city has risen to 23 per cent today from 20 per cent in 2013.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, in a statement, dismissed Kejriwal claiming credit for reducing pollution in the national capital. The BJP leader alleged that the condition of Delhi’s roads is “very poor”, and the deteriorating state of public transportation is contributing the most to pollution.
“The Government has not taken any steps to clean the Yamuna river. If pollution has decreased in Delhi, it is only possible due to the efforts of the Central Government,” Bidhuri claimed. “In Delhi, the pace of development has not gone down in the last eight years. Schools, hospitals and flyovers are being constructed,” said Kejriwal while addressing Paryavaran Sammelan, adding work on development has taken place at a swift pace. “But, the pollution level has dipped in this period,” he said. Sharing data, he said in 2016, on 26 days, pollution level was ‘very bad’ when the city was “akin to a gas chamber” with grey skies and bad air. In 2022, only six such days were there, he said. In 2016, on 109 days, pollution level was ‘low with clear sky’ and ‘very good air outside’, but in 2022, the number of such days were 163, he said. The Chief Minister highlighted the various initiatives undertaken by the Delhi Government to combat pollution, including tree transplantation, the implementation of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) in industries, and the utilisation of Real-Time Source Apportionment Technology. Moreover, the government has identified and is actively working on 13 pollution hotspots in the state. These multifaceted interventions underscore the Government’s unwavering commitment to curbing pollution and safeguarding the health and well-being of Delhi’s residents.
Kejriwal, in his address, said it has been 50 years of World Environment Day celebrations. And, in these 50 years, pollution has “increased in every city, village and locality”, but it has gone down in Delhi, “as we have worked with 2 crore people of the city and taken a number of measures to mitigate pollution”. In an impassioned plea, he called upon the people of Delhi to transform the fight against pollution into a ‘jan andolan’ (people’s movement).
“An area of around 5,000 acres is within cultivation in Delhi and all the farmers here now use this liquid that eliminates the need to burn stubble. Therefore, none of this pollution now originates from Delhi,” he said. The event was attended by Delhi Environment and Forests Minister Gopal Rai, local legislators, and other senior officials of the department.