Stop blame game, act immediately to tackle air pollution: CPI (M) tells Centre

Urging the Centre to refrain from passing the buck on the growing menace of air pollution, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday said Centre should sit with the Punjab and Haryana government to put an end to the stubble burning emanating from the respective states which has been which has been plaguing Delhiites post-Diwali.

"There might be many reasons for the air pollution, but the important fact remains the same, that the Central government should sit together with Punjab and Haryana government and take action immediately. The need of the hour is to take action immediately not involve in the blame game," CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat told ANI.

The National Green Tribunal(NGT) on Monday slammed the Centre and the Delhi government of Aam Aadmi Party on waking up late on the deadly air pollution issue, moved quickly to engage all stakeholders in the fight against smog.

While the Delhi Culture Minister Kapil Mishra appealed to citizens to come up with suggestions to tackle Delhi's pollution, health minister Satyendra Jain hinted a return of the odd-even policy to curb vehicular pollution.

Union Minister for Environment Anil Dave separately held a meeting to discuss the pollution in the national capital.

With the visibility on roads showing some improvement on the first day of the week after the dust and smog choked the capital with worst levels in 17 years, the weather and pollution experts hoped that the situation will show some improvement on Tuesday.

The ambient air quality measurement showed no significant change in the levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10.

The national green tribunal on Monday slammed Delhi government, Centre, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan on the rising levels of pollution. The tribunal asked all the governments," What have you done till now to curb pollution? "NGT asked, "Why haven't you started sprinkling water on roads to reduce dust?What happened to the proposal of sprinkling water using helicopters?"

Coming down heavily on the local municipal bodies in Delhi, the NGT asked," Isn't it your responsibility to curb pollution? What is Nagar Nigam doing, they were asked to use machines for cleaning purposes earlier?"

Meanwhile, environmentalist Sunita Narayan of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has filed a petition in Supreme Court on Delhi pollution.

The apex court will hear her petition on Tuesday.