'Pollution on, Kejriwal gone': Cong demands CM's resignation over Delhi air quality

The Congress demanded on Friday that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should resign and apologise over the hazardous pollution levels in Delhi as it sought a blueprint in the next 15 days on how to improve the air quality.

Thick smog blanketed Delhi on Friday as the air quality remained in the 'severe' zone for the second consecutive day, primarily due to unfavourable meteorological conditions and raging farm fires in Punjab.

"Pollution on, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi gone," Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said at a press conference in New Delhi.

The dig is ostensibly a tweak of the Delhi government's 'red light on, car off' campaign.

Read | Delhi primary schools to be shut from November 5 as pollution worsens

"When pollution shoots up, both the chief minister and the prime minister leave Delhi and travel to Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and elsewhere," Vallabh said, in an apparent reference to the election campaigning. The Congress leader alleged that Kejriwal and Modi keep travelling because they did not want to inhale the toxic air in Delhi. Vallabh claimed that the chief minister has "accepted" responsibility for the hazardous air quality in Delhi and, therefore, he must resign immediately. "He should apologise to the people," Vallabh said.

Citing a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, Vallabh said 33 per cent of the pollution in Delhi was due to local sources. He asked why the Kejriwal government did nothing to check local causes for pollution.

Vallabh said Kejriwal and Modi must sit together and come out with a blueprint in the next 15 days to improve the air quality.

Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary said the smog towers were a living monument of failures of the central and the Delhi governments.

"Pollution on, Kejriwal gone. Crores have been spent on installation of smog towers in Delhi, but the tall claims made by the AAP and the BJP fell flat," Chaudhary said.

Earlier, Kejriwal announced that primary schools would be closed from Saturday in view of the spike in pollution levels. Environment Minister Gopal Rai ordered 50 per cent staff of the Delhi government to work from home and said an advisory would be issued to private offices to follow suit.