BJP accuses Kejriwal, Mann of criminal negligence over Delhi’s air quality, calls for their resignation

The city’s 24-hour average air quality index stood at 392 (very poor), worsening from 352 on Sunday

The BJP on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government in Delhi and Punjab of “criminal negligence” for Delhi’s air pollution levels hitting the “severe” category, and demanded the resignations of Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann.

Gaurav Bhatia, the BJP’s national spokesperson, addressing a press conference at the party’s national headquarters in New Delhi, said that the people of Delhi, as well as Punjab, were blaming the AAP Governments led by Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, respectively, for the “poison” in air, and cited figures to assert that incidents of stubble burning in Punjab had gone up to 10,214 from 7,648.

Data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), a forecasting agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, showed that stubble burning accounted for 22% of the city’s PM 2.5 pollution on Monday. It was 26% on Sunday, the highest this year so far, and 21% on Saturday. The city’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 392 (very poor), worsening from 352 on Sunday.

Mr. Bhatia alleged that Mr. Kejriwal and his party were busy in “corruption” and “looting” people while ignoring the Centre’s directive to Punjab back in February to take measures to curb stubble burning.

He quoted Mr. Kejriwal’s statements made last year and earlier, in which he had blamed stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana for the dangerous level of pollution in Delhi. The AAP came to power in Punjab in March this year.

“While the BJP government in Haryana worked to reduce stubble burning incidents to 1,925 from 2,873, the numbers have only gone up in Punjab, spiking pollution in north Indian States,” Mr. Bhatia said.

He claimed that the Centre had given Punjab ₹1,350 crore against ₹693 crore to Haryana, and that it had also handed the Mann-led State 1.20 lakh machines to deal with the issue, but the Punjab Government had done nothing.