Both Houses of Parliament on Thursday witnessed MPs cutting across party lines raising the issue of air and water pollution in the Capital.
In the Rajya Sabha, the issue turned into a political slugfest between BJP and AAP, with BJP MP Vijay Goel flashing clippings of newspapers with advertisements of air purifiers and also displaying mini oxygen cylinder. In the Lok Sabha which devoted afternoon for on the debate on the matter, many MPs demanded a stringent law to prevent for air pollution. They also accused “Delhi-centric” people to blame only farmers for stubble burning while ignoring the “much bigger” pollution created by the city’s industrial units and construction waste and large number of diesel vehicles.
In Rajya Sabha, brief disruptions happened during the debate on pollution in Delhi and NCR.
Members from the BJP and the opposition led by the AAP and supported by Congress, SP and others were involved in heated exchanges for around 10 minutes, when Rajya Sabha assembled after lunch to discuss about rising pollution levels.
After Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar read his statement informing about the steps taken by the Centre on the issue, BJP member Vijay Goel alleged that the Delhi Government is not taking proper action to tackle pollution.
He also alleged corruption by the Delhi Government in distributing 50 lakh masks among the people and said the residents of the national capital are also forced to drink bottled water as tap water was not safe.
Goel displayed clippings of newspapers with advertisements of air purifiers and also displayed mini oxygen cylinder. This was opposed by AAP members Sanjay Singh and Sushil Gupta. They were supported by other opposition parties including Congress, SP and others.
During the second day of debate in Lok Sabha, Union minister Babul Supriyo belted out a few lines of the popular Bollywood song ‘Hawa ke sath sath, ghata ke sang sang’ in Lok Sabha to drive home the point that the Government is taking steps for “cleaner” air. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor suggested that a legislative framework be adopted to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which proposes multiple measures to combat air pollution. He said political differences should be kept aside as there was a need to work together to address this “toxicity”. “A legislative approach needs to be adopted to implement the NCAP,” he said.
BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Bhagwant Mann (AAP) and Anupriya Patel(Apna Dal) said that farmers should alone not be blamed for stubble burning, considered as one of the main reasons for air pollution in the national capital region, and demanded that they should be encouraged to grow crops which do not leave stubble. Rudy pointed out that there many reasons for the increased pollution in Delhi because of uncontrolled industrial waste, existence of toxic exiting units and more vehicles in affluent families. “It is unfair to blame farmers alone.
They should be helped to change the pattern of growing and find financial models on stubble etc,” he said. Rudy who is also a Pilot said that many of his foreign pilot friends have already cancelled trip to Delhi in December and narrated how US Government implemented strict laws to prevent air pollution in metros.