New Delhi: With much of north India reeling from its yearly dose of early-winter hazardous air quality, parliamentarians deliberated on the causes and possible solutions to the problem on Tuesday.
Congress MP Manish Tewari began the debate and suggested that lessons be learnt from China, through how it solved its air pollution problem.
12. SHRI MANISH TEWARI SHRI PINAKI MISRA to raise a discussion on air pollution and climate change.
NEW DELHI; November 18, 2019 Under Rule 193 in the Lok Sabha today .— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) November 19, 2019
Tewari also said that he understands that stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh is one of the reasons why air quality takes a dip in the months of October and November. But, he pointed out that it was imperative to keep in mind the economic realities faced by farmers, small and marginal farmers in particular.
Estimates vary, but between 20 and 40% of north India’s air pollution problem is contributed to by paddy stubble burning in October and November. The farmers are forced to burn the stubble – and they suffer themselves too from the resulting pollution – as the time between harvest of paddy and sowing of wheat is very little owing to a legislation in Punjab and Haryana which delays sowing in order to keep ground water use in check.
Tewari recommended that a standing committee be set up to deliberate on air pollution and climate change issues. It should meet every session and chalk out plans to deal with the two issues, he suggested.
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The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP from Puri, Pinaki Mishra, also spoke on the issue and said that it is wrong to blame farmers alone for the problem and there is also a need to curb the use of firecrackers around Diwali.
“On the evening of Diwali and the morning, pollution levels had spiked in Delhi. Stubble burning had already been going on for several days. So, although stubble burning is a contributing factor, it is not the only factor,” he said.
Parvesh Verma, BJP MP from West Delhi, agreed with Mishra that it would be unfair to blame only farmers for the air pollution problem, and instead trained his guns at the Delhi government.
“Five years ago, it was only the chief minister of Delhi who used to cough. Now, the entire state is coughing. All that he has given to Delhi, for free, is pollution,” Verma said, referring to Arvind Kejriwal’s chronic cough problem.
He accused the Delhi government of trying to engineer a ‘rift’ between urban and rural populations by blaming Delhi’s pollution problem on farmers and ignoring other local sources of pollution like vehicular emissions.
Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar appeared in Parliament wearing a mask to protect herself from air pollution. She suggested that a swachh hawa or ‘clean air’ mission be launched on the lines of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
“Out of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, nine are in India. It is quite unnerving that a foreign premiere of a country, who was on a visit to India, made an adverse comment. I would like to draw the attention of the government towards it. Shouldn’t we be ensured the right to breath clean air? In Delhi, we might be staring at a situation of mass asphyxia,” Ghosh said.
DMK MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian cited academic studies to say that breathing Delhi’s air is akin to smoking between 40 and 50 cigarettes a day. He also said that according to studies if Delhi had cleaner air, its citizens would live nine more years on an average.
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In the evening, East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir, who recently was criticised for skipping a meeting to discuss air pollution in favour of being on air as a commentator for a Test match, also spoke about the issue.
He urged that the air pollution debate not be politicised. “The topic of discussion is something that affects everyone irrespective of our caste, creed, age, and religion. It’s affecting us while we stand and talk about it in parliament. It’s high time we stop politicising this issue,” Gambhir said.
Immediately after that he called the Delhi government’s odd-even scheme a ‘gimmick’. “The state can no longer get away with a gimmick like odd-even and banning construction sites. We need long term sustainable solutions and stop the blame game. It’s time to own up and act responsibly,” he said.