Overview
- Environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa blamed the previous AAP administration for Delhi’s air-quality failures and cited WHO and IQAir rankings from 2014 to 2025.
- The government outlined measures including biomining at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur with about 45 acres reclaimed, road carpeting and dust control, year-round ‘No PUC, No Fuel’ enforcement, shutdown of fake PUC centres, a target of 7,500 electric buses by 2026, and over 10,000 acres notified as reserve forest.
- AAP’s Gopal Rai argued pollution improved under earlier policies, cited a rise in ‘good air days’ from 2016 to 2018, questioned spending on artificial rain, and said smog towers were installed under Supreme Court directions.
- Speaker Vijender Gupta noted opposition leaders were absent during Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s remarks and adjourned the Winter Session sine die after the pollution debate concluded.
- Rekha Gupta said personal attacks over her verbal slips reflected discomfort with a woman chief minister, and she asserted year-round work on pollution, including Rs 2,300 crore support to the MCD for cleanup projects.