Congress slams govt over pollution in Delhi-NCR

The Congress hit out at the Centre on Friday over the issue of rising pollution in Delhi-NCR and asked what has Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office done to address this "very critical emergency".

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, while responding to a question on four MPs of a 28-member parliamentary panel attending a key meeting to discuss the air pollution crisis in Delhi-NCR on Friday, said it is not just about one committee meeting, but about the serious situation prevailing here.

The attack from the opposition party came even as its all four MPs, also part of the parliamentary panel, did not attend the meeting.

"A holistic solution can only be worked out, especially, when there are several stakeholders of different state governments belonging to different parties. A holistic solution can only be found out at the level of PMO -- nothing less than that because this is after all the capital city of India," Khera said at a press conference.

"What has the Prime Minister of India done, what has his office has done to address this very-very critical emergency of pollution?" he said.

It is very easy for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to blame the Centre and the Centre to blame him, and together, for them to blame the poor farmer, Khera said.

"What are you doing Mr Prime Minister to address this problem? Kejriwal says it is coming from the fields of Haryana and Punjab and then takes credit for reducing pollution through the odd-even scheme," he said, adding that they are all trying to "hoodwink" people.