Include clean air in poll manifestos, political parties urged
Darpan News Desk IANS, 14 Jan, 2022 03:30 PM
Chandigarh, Jan 14 (IANS) In the run up to the assembly polls in Punjab, Clean Air Punjab -- a group of organisations, think tanks and civil society groups along with EcoSikh, on Friday asked all the political parties to include clean air in their poll manifestos.
On behalf of Clean Air Punjab, Gurpreet Singh of the Punjab Development Forum and Director of United Sikhs submitted a dossier containing the recommendations to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Daljit Cheema, AAP legislator Aman Arora and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Bajwa.
"Punjab needs a strong leader who can implement structural reforms and revise policies to improve the air quality of all cities in the state," Gurpreet Singh said.
"Our state wants its leaders to lead by example and present answers to the air pollution crisis, which impacts the health of the people."
He said the generation is being choked by air pollution, which has resulted in a high number of deaths.
According to statistics, Punjab had 41,090 deaths in 2019, accounting for roughly 19 per cent of the state's total mortality.
Indu Aurora, Vice President, Voice of Amritsar, said this was for the first time that all political parties competing against each other were discussing air pollution at length.
"We will hold the new administration accountable for their promises," she said, adding she herself is a witness to the deteriorating air quality in Punjab and it is high time that those who get voted into power should take on the responsibility to ensure that the air "we breathe" is clean and proper checks are implemented to ensure a cleaner future for the next generation.
Clean Air Punjab has been conducting meetings in cities and was successful in ensuring that 2021 was the first time in the state when the air pollution was highlighted through different citizen campaigns across Punjab.
"Citizens of Punjab along with citizen groups, air quality experts and health practitioners have been successful in building a momentum, which has resulted in clean air and its impact on public health becoming a pressing issue for politicians who were earlier oblivious of the air pollution problem. We are now sure they will not be able to ignore it any further," said Anju Chabbra of EcoSikh.
According to global estimates, the air pollution is one of the most serious environmental issues confronting India today, and it is regarded as a major cause of countless deaths.
Punjab has reason to be concerned: the National Clean Air Action Plan lists nine non-attainment or million-plus cities in the state. A city that does not fulfil the Union Environment Ministry's specified air quality requirements is known as a non-attainment city.
Most of these farmers had earlier stated that they were present at the spot but were not involved in the attack. They were, at that time, charged under bailable sections such as 'rioting' and 'voluntarily causing hurt' and were let off by the SIT officials under Section 41 of the CrPC.
The Congress is witnessing internal bickering on the issue of security breach of the Prime Minister and Congress MP from Punjab Manish Tewari has termed the incidence as most unfortunate and said the matter should be probed by a sitting High Court Judge.
Addressing a gathering in Tanda in Hoshiarpur district after laying the foundation stone of development work, the Chief Minister said there was no threat to the life of the Prime Minister but he cancelled his programme on Wednesday because of the thin presence of people at the BJP's rally.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
