Day after rubbishing reports that burning of stubble in neighboring states is responsible for just 10 percent of the air pollution in the capital, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the citizens of Delhi alone are not guilty for the air pollution.
“Unless equal attention is given to sources of pollution that lie outside and is dealt with full commitment, it will be difficult to get relief from the pollution,” Kejriwal said.
He reiterated that the sources of pollution lie both inside and outside the national capital while referring to stubble burning in neighboring states in the winter months.
He referred to the 2018 report by TERI which indicated that only 36% of pollution in Delhi is due to the sources within the national capital, while the rest comes from the outside sources.
The Delhi government will be able to provide real-time data on sources of pollution in Delhi from March 2020, Kejriwal said while asserting that the people of Delhi cannot be held responsible for the air quality at a time when Delhi is the only city that has embraced ‘harsh measures’ to combat pollution and has cut it by 25%.