Cong organises ‘walkathon’ against rising air pollution in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Congress women’s wing organised a ‘walkathon’ in central Delhi on Saturday morning to attract the government’s attention and to raise awareness on the growing pollution levels in the city.

The ‘walkathon’ started at Patel Chowk and ended at Jantar Mantar.

Over 100 school girls and women from different spheres took part in the walk, where apart from pollution the problems of women’s safety and youth unemployment were also discussed.

Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress president Sharmistha Mukherjee along with the national coordinator of Priyadaarshini Cell — an initiative of the All India Mahila Congress — Aditi Singh flagged off the event, which demanded clean air for Delhiites.

Slamming the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state and the BJP government in the Centre, Mukherjee said that the negligence of the two governments was responsible for the national capital to have reached such alarming levels of pollution.

She said that the AAP government, over its four years of rule, had done nothing to strengthen the public transport infrastructure in the city, while the BJP in the municipalities were turning a blind eye to the growing filth.

“Instead of augmenting the public transport system, the Delhi government under Arvind Kejriwal pulled the city back by at least a decade,” she said.

Mukherjee added, “The Congress government under Sheila Dikshit left a fleet of 5,223 DTC buses that has now been reduced to 3,951 buses. The Delhi Metro Phase-3 was delayed by more than two years and clearance for the Phase-4 of the Metro was left stuck over a year.”