E-Paper
'AAP did nothing': Delhi govt blames Kejriwal for 'failing' to fulfil pollution tasks in 11 years
Delhi minister Parvesh Verma held a press conference in which he presented a big stack of tasks that he said that former AAP-led government should have done.
The Delhi government on Thursday said that it was because the erstwhile AAP-led government "failed" to fulfil any of the pollution-related tasks that tackling the problem presently is becoming a big problem. Amid mounting air pollution concerns due to a spike in the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the city, Delhi minister Parvesh Verma held a press conference in which he presented a big stack of tasks that the former government should have completed.
"If the AAP government had even done half of these tasks, we would have had to do only the remaining ones... But Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government have not done even a single task in the last 11 years...," Verma said.
The tasks listed by the state government during the presser included removing mountains of garbage, constructing parks, repairing footpaths, e-waste management, cleaning river Yamuna, sewage treatment, cleaning of roads and managing plastic waste, among others.
Varma also said that the pollution problem didn't emerge within one year and has persisted since long ago. “Our government in Delhi has been in place for the past 9 months... From February 20, 2025, the Chief Minister of Delhi and all the ministers have been out on Delhi's roads...The Delhi government has been successful in every program,” he said.
“If Arvind Kejriwal had done even a little bit of work, we would have had to do only the remaining work. Still, the misfortune is that Arvind Kejriwal has deceived the people of Delhi…,” he added.
Verma's remarks come on a day when stricter curbs took effect in Delhi. These include the shifting of offices to work from home on a hybrid mode basis, a ban on entry for certain vehicles into the, and no re-fuelling of vehicles without mandatory PUC certificates.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi remained at 358 at 8 am on Thursday, falling in the ‘very poor’ category. With a thick fog reducing visibility across the city, 22 flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport and over 250 were delayed, airport officials told HT.
