Delhi Minister for Environment, Forest and Wildlife Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Friday asserted that the Delhi government has adopted a firm, results-oriented approach to tackle air pollution, saying the fight against deteriorating air quality will continue with sustained government action and public participation.
He said ‘despite having inherited pollution problem from Arvind Kejriwal regime, BJP government will not run away from it, instead fight it and eliminate it. "We assure the people of Delhi that this fight against pollution will continue like this. People of Delhi and the neighbouring states will have to cooperate too. Only then will we be able to combat pollution," Sirsa said.
During a detailed statement in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Sirsa presented what he described as a comprehensive and factual account of Delhi's pollution crisis and the steps taken by the Rekha Gupta-led government over the past 11 months. Drawing a sharp comparison with the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, he said Delhi had witnessed "11 years of failure versus 11 months of hard work" in addressing pollution.
"We will not run away from pollution. We will fight it and eliminate it," the minister said, alleging that the AAP government allowed pollution to become a permanent crisis over the last decade. Despite repeated observations and strictures from the Supreme Court, High Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he said, the previous government focused largely on publicity-driven measures instead of long-term solutions.
Citing global assessments, Sirsa told the House that between 2014 and 2025, international agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and IQAir consistently ranked Delhi among the world's most polluted capitals. He also referred to judicial remarks describing Delhi as a "gas chamber" and "unfit for living", underscoring what he termed the failure of earlier policies.
Referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, Sirsa said flagship measures like the odd-even scheme did not yield meaningful results, noting that 66 per cent of two-wheelers were exempted and only 46 per cent of vehicles underwent Pollution Under Control (PUC) testing. He further pointed out that of the Rs 81 crore allocated to Delhi under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), the previous government utilised only Rs 14 crore.
Outlining the current government's strategy, the Environment, Forest and Wildlife Minister said Chief Minister Rekha Gupta's administration formulated a clear five-pillar policy covering dust and solid waste management, industrial pollution control, vehicular emissions, expansion of green cover and institutional reforms.
On solid waste management, Sirsa said biomining is underway at the Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfill sites, with around 35,000 metric tonnes of legacy waste being processed daily. He said 45 acres of land have been reclaimed, the height of garbage mounds reduced from 60 metres to 40 metres, with an additional 15-metre reduction at Ghazipur. Daily waste-to-energy utilisation has reached 9,700 metric tonnes, with plans to increase capacity to 14,000 metric tonnes per day.
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