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Updated: Jul 26, 2020 18:26 IST

Gautam Gambhir, the Delhi BJP lawmaker who was recently panned by the Aam Aadmi Party for skipping a meeting of a parliamentary panel on air pollution, on Tuesday called for an end to politics over pollution. “It is high time we stop politicising over such grave issues,” the East Delhi lawmaker told the Lok Sabha before going on to attack the Arvind Kejriwal-led city government for what he described as ‘gimmicks’.

“The public is smart and the state is that of a climate emergency…. The state can no longer get away with gimmicks such as odd-even, shutting construction sites,” Gautam Gambhir said during a discussion on air pollution in the Lok Sabha.

The two steps are part of the graded action plan devised by the Supreme Court-mandated air pollution control body EPCA.

WATCH | Lok Sabha discusses pollution: From BJP to Cong & TMC, who said what

But the odd even vehicle rationing scheme is mostly associated with the AAP government which had announced its implementation long before the graded action plan had kicked in.

Parvesh Verma, the West Delhi lawmaker, had set the tone for turning Kejriwal and his government into a dartboard early in the day.

Pravesh Verma slammed the AAP government for blaming stubble burning for pollution in the National Capital Region and ignoring major pollutants, including vehicles and dust. Verma initially named Kejriwal for failing to curb pollution but was told by the Chair not to name the Delhi chief minister in line with parliamentary procedures. The BJP lawmaker claimed Rs 600 crore was spent by the Delhi government on advertisements but little was done to curb pollution, according to news agency PTI.

His party colleague Manoj Tiwari went a step ahead. He wanted Parliament to find some way to punish states which fail to take action to stop air pollution as this is a state subject. Tiwari then went on to blame the AAP government of holding back funds from the municipal corporations.

(With PTI inputs)