Odd-even scheme has failed to check air pollution: Delhi Cong chief

New Delhi, Nov 7 (PTI) Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely on Tuesday claimed the odd-even car rationing scheme in the past has failed to check air pollution and that it only caused inconvenience to people.

He also said that Delhi has become a gas chamber with the government failing to take effective steps to combat air pollution.

The remarks made by Lovely came after Delhi Environment Minister Gopla Rai on Monday announced that the odd-even scheme would be enforced in the city from November 13 to 20.

Lovely said that both the central and state governments were responsible for the worst air quality as they did not take any step to check pollution the whole year, and only woke up when people were suffering due to toxic air.

He said that if stubble burning was a contributory factor for Delhi's air pollution, then the BJP governments in UP and Haryana and the AAP governments in Punjab and Delhi should have taken advance steps to check incidents of farm fires.

'The odd-even scheme of the state government had been established as a wrong step, which did not reduce pollution, but only created inconvenience to the people. The Delhi Congress wants to give a constructive suggestion that the lieutenant governor should call an all-party meeting to find a lasting solution to the dangerous air pollution,' Lovely said in a statement.

The Congress leader alleged that due to the dangerous air pollution, people were forced to move out of Delhi to protect their lives, but both the governments seemed least bothered about the people's plight. PTI NIT NIT KVK KVK