Amid the Delhi government's claims about the national capital's clean air and water, the Opposition has been prompt in its sharp attack discrediting the government.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj was on the ground, claiming that the BJP government has been “lying” to the public.
He made five key claims about the pollution in Delhi.
AQI Data Not Available
On October 21, a day after Diwali, Bharadwaj claimed that the Delhi government shut the AQI monitoring devices on the night of Diwali and the live data was not been made available.
He said, “The pollution data of DPCC (full form) and CPCB (full form) for the night of Diwali from various stations was not available. The minister did not give any specific answer about that. I urge the minister and the government to make that data public.”
AQI Data Rigged
Bharadwaj accused the Delhi government of rigging the AQI data.
“It is very clear that the government’s data and the data from other pollution apps that we are using had a huge difference. Where the government data showed AQI at 400, the pollution apps on our phones showed up to 1700 AQI. Why this huge difference? The government should answer,” he said.
AQI Device Manipulation
Bharadwaj claimed the reading at the pollution monitoring station at Anand Vihar was being manipulated by sprinkling water
only where the device was installed.
A truck sprinkling water could be seen circling in front of the device. Delhi Minister Majinder Singh Sirsa responded to cloud seeding query raised by the Opposition.
"They keep asking why did we not do cloud-seeding? I want to tell these illiterates that they have forgotten everything because of their agenda. In cloud seeding, first comes the cloud, then comes seeding. The day clouds will come, seeding will happen,” Sirsa quipped.
Clean Yamuna is a Lie
Bharadwaj also dissed the Delhi government for its claim of 'cleaning' Yamuna ahead of Chhath Puja. People from the Purvanchal celebrate Chhath Puja by taking a holy dip in the Yamuna river in Delhi.
The AAP MLA said that the BJP government is “fooling the innocent Purvanchalis of Delhi by saying they’ve cleaned Yamuna. I want to tell Rekha Gupta that I will bring this water to you. You can drink this water and assure the people that you’ve cleaned Yamuna.”
Yamuna Water Actually Ganga’s
Bharadwaj claimed that an “artificial” Yamuna has been created at the ghats for PM Modi.
“Vasudev Ghat has been separated from Yamuna and a boundary has been made in between. That green water pipeline, you can see, it is bringing clean, filtered Ganga water here. Just so nothing happens to the prime minister, an artificial ghat has been made right nest to Yamuna,” he said.
Bharadwaj said it was politically motivated to appease the voters of Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
BJP called AAP's charges shameful and an “example of political frustration”.
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta countered AAP’s claim on a national news TV show. She said that the government never claimed that Yamuna water is drinkable. “It is clean enough for us to pray and take bath. This much we have done. It will take time but it will be drinkable as well,” she said.
