Delhi's air pollution 'ongoing crime' against citizens: Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal

New Delhi, Mar 9 (PTI) AAP Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal on Monday called Delhi's air pollution crisis as an "ongoing crime" against its residents and demanded action at the war-footing level from the government to check it.

Participating in a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the Upper House, she sought a complete exemption from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for air and water purifiers until pollution is controlled.

Maliwal demanded that the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) be freed from bureaucratic clutches and made fully autonomous.

"Experts should lead it (CAQM). Equip it with real resources and authority, and allocate a dedicated Rs 10,000 crore special fund with a singular, non-negotiable mandate to eliminate air pollution across the Delhi NCR region," she said.

Maliwal said that it is a matter of grave concern that the country's capital, Delhi, has become the most polluted capital of the world.

She said that Delhi's air has become so toxic that health experts are openly advising residents to leave the city if they can.

Maliwal said that 15 per cent of all deaths in Delhi in 2023 were directly linked to air pollution, and the lungs of 22 lakh children have been permanently and irreversibly damaged.

There has not been a single "good air quality" day recorded in Delhi throughout 2025, the AAP MP said.

"Breathing in Delhi is equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. Behind every statistic is a mother who left too soon, a child who cannot play without coughing, a labourer forced to work in poisoned air from morning to night," said Maliwal, the Rajya Sabha member from Delhi.

This is not only a public health emergency, she said, adding that "it is an ongoing crime against the people of Delhi".

She blamed the previous government for not addressing the crisis.

"The Delhi government had collected Rs 1,500 crore under the green cess between 2015 and 2023, yet spent less than half of it — and that too only after being reprimanded by the courts," Maliwal said.

She said the previous AAP-led government had put photos of its leaders on hoardings in the name of fighting pollution.

"Pollution doesn't retreat at the sight of a politician's face on a hoarding. This crisis demands long-term, holistic planning," Maliwal said.

She also suggested expansion of public transport and efforts to check overcrowding in metro trains and in buses.

Maliwal said farmers are compelled to burn stubble because they lack alternatives and demanded Rs 5,000 per acre compensation so that they can have viable options, thus putting an end to both the stubble burning and the blame game.

She said out of 35 thermal plants operating within 300 kms of Delhi, only 13 have installed emission-control systems, and demanded strict enforcement on them.

Maliwal said there are rampant violations of norms at construction sites, dust from broken roads and open waste burning continue unchecked.

"Delhi's PM 2.5 levels average 200 in winter — 40 times the WHO's safe limit. India cannot remain entangled in GRAP Stage-1 and Stage-2 alerts while the city chokes," she said.

Maliwal said that air purifiers and N95 masks cannot become the new normal and asked the government concerned and society to treat the fight against air pollution as a war — one that must be won for the country's future. PTI AKV HVA