New Delhi, Nov 18 2024-
The worsening air quality in the national capital, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) breaching the 450 mark (severe plus) category on Monday, has drawn sharp condemnation and protest from all quarters. Robert Vadra, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband and a leading entrepreneur took to social media, raised concerns over deteriorating air quality and slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi as well as BJP-ruled Centre over the city’s hazardous air pollution.
“It is appalling to see the BJP and the AAP turn the safety and well-being of Delhi’s citizens into the subject matter of their own political slugfest,” Vadra said in a Facebook post.
He termed it a ‘battle for survival’ and said that poisonous air is an ‘indiscriminate killer’ as it doesn’t discriminate between anyone’s caste or religion. “There is no battle of ideologies to win here. It is simply a question of survival. Poisoned air doesn’t care which caste or religion you belong to. It is an undiscriminating killer. The time to lay down a roadmap is now. The road to a solution starts with us,” he wrote.
He demanded that such an ‘alarming’ situation does call for keeping aside political differences and working together for the common cause. “This is an avoidable problem, and one that it is about time we came together in a productive discourse. If we genuinely put together the considerable resources and talent at our disposal to good use we can actually come up with solutions,” he wrote.
Vadra also cited the example of China and its technology-driven apparatus in curbing air pollution. He said that it was time that the ruling dispensations (AAP and BJP) avoid bickering and work towards deploying ‘sustainable solutions.’
“China has been able to drastically reduce its smog levels by employing such techniques as massive windmill style fans (to dissipate smog cover). I read that the Delhi Government was planning on using helicopters to artificially seed rain clouds. it is time we deploy these imaginative solutions. I am certain that bright environmental scholars already have these solutions in mind. Bickering and political point scoring does nothing for no one. We also need long-term sustainable solutions to ensure something like this doesn’t continue to happen every year,” he wrote in FB post.
Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi did mention the previous (read UPA) government’s environmental-friendly decisions and called for effecting a transition towards electric vehicles.
“The previous Government imposed energy efficiency standards on air conditioners, fridges and other electronic appliances. This in turn led to a drastic cut in electricity consumption. We need more electric cars and buses. We need better solutions for our farmers. It is a one-time cost for the Government to purchase the machines which can turn husk into safe and non-toxic refuse,” he remarked. (Agency)
 breaching the 450 mark (severe plus) category on Monday, has drawn sharp condemnation and protest from all quarters. Robert Vadra, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband and a leading entrepreneur took to social media, raised concerns over deteriorating air quality and slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi as well as BJP-ruled Centre over the city’s hazardous air pollution.){kind=link}