Pollution in Delhi ongoing issue, but meeting called after gap of nine months: BJP's Virendra Sachdeva

New Delhi [India], October 27 : Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Virendra Sachdeva has criticized the handling of year-round pollution in the national capital, pointing out that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) convened a meeting after a gap of nine months.
Sachdeva said, "Pollution in Delhi is an ongoing issue, and it appears that serious efforts were lacking. The DPCC should ideally hold meetings on a monthly basis, but in this case, the meeting occurred after a hiatus of nine months. The behavior of the Delhi government is reminiscent of that of their Chief Minister."
He also presented documents related to stubble-burning cases and accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha of making false claims about a reduction in stubble burning incidents in Punjab.
Sachdeva stated, "Raghav Chadha's assertion that stubble burning has reduced by half in Punjab is untrue. The figures, up to October 25, tell a different story. Just on October 26, out of a total of 7136 cases, 3293 were related to stubble burning in Punjab. NASA's satellite imagery released today exposes the Aam Aadmi Party's shortcomings. Out of the 1113 cases of stubble burning reported on that day, 589 were from Punjab. Haryana is being unfairly blamed, even though it had only 67 reported
Pointing out the exorbitant expenses undertaken by the Delhi government for controlling pollution, Sachdeva said, "The cost of installation is more than Rs 21 lakh. The cost of spraying is quite high. The government spent Rs 15 crore on advertising. A capsule worth Rs 40,000 was released and Rs 15 crore was spent on its publicity."
Sachdeva accused that Delhi governmnet of harassing people with schemes like Odd-Even meant for controlling vehicular pollution.
"Diwali, the festival of the Hindu society is coming. But AAP party will now harass people by taking steps like odd-even. In three years, Rs 55 crore was spent on promoting Odd Even," he said.
Speaking about the futility of maintaining smog tower, he said, "More than Rs two crore was spent on the maintenance of the smog tower. But that does not work. Now they have a government in Punjab."
As the overall air quality in Delhi continues to remain in the 'Poor' category with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 249 on Friday morning, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that a 15-point winter action plan is being implemented one by one to curb the pollution.
"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced a 15-point winter action plan to curb the pollution caused by vehicles, biomass burning, dust, etc. Now this winter action plan is being implemented on the ground one by one to reduce the pollution in the national capital," Rai said.