The Centre has told Parliament that it is taking all possible measures to check the severe air pollution in Delhi.

Replying to a calling attention motion in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said there is general improvement on air quality of Delhi in 2018 from 2017.

He claimed in his statement that the number of ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’, and ‘moderate’ days of air quality has increased to 159 days in 2018. In 2017, Delhi had 152 such days and 106 days in 2016.

The motion on the ‘situation arising out of the dangerous levels of air pollution in the country, particularly in Delhi’, was moved by BJP MPs RK Sinha, Vijay Goel, KJ Alphons and others.

“For management of air pollution in Delhi and NCR, source-based approach has been adopted by the government to control air pollution which gets aggravated during during winter months.

Major sources contributing to air pollution are industrial emissions, vehicular emissions, road and soil dust, construction and demolition activities, biomass and garbage burning, etc,” the Minister said.

Congress’ jibe

Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, however, termed the Centre’s efforts inadequate. He said there is no point in bringing politics into the issue and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a meeting of all affected States and find a solution.

Congress member Pratap Singh Bajwa ridiculed certain remarks made by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Javadekar in Twitter on the matter. “They are asking us to eat carrots. Are we goats?” Bajwa asked. He was commenting on a Twitter remark by Harsh Vardhan that root vegetables can help people to fight ailments due to air pollution.

Bajwa also attacked Javadekar over his suggestion that people should begin their days by tuning into music.

‘Lack of seriousness’

BJP member Vijay Goel’s allegations against the AAP government in Delhi led to some heated arguments among elders. He accused the Delhi government of dealing with the issue without any seriousness and alleged corruption in the State government’s decision to distribute 50 lakh masks among the people. Goel’s remarks were countered by AAP members Sanjay Singh and Sushil Gupta, who were supported by members from Opposition.