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

The Congress on Friday demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation over the hazardous pollution levels in Delhi and also 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.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Delhi must be the only city in the world where schools and offices are shut because of pollution.

''Past 8 yrs, Delhi Govt couldn't determine the cause of pollution nor could they make a policy to prevent it? While Delhi gasps for air, the CM & PM are breathing elections,'' Kharge tweeted.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, party leader Gourav Vallabh said: ''Pollution on, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi gone.'' The dig was ostensibly a tweak of the Delhi government's 'red light on, car off' campaign.

''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.