New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday accused the BJP-led Delhi government of manipulating pollution figures by selectively installing air quality monitoring systems in green and less-polluted areas.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Singh dismissed the allegations as “lies” cooked to mislead the public.

Addressing a press conference, AAP’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Before the elections, the BJP raised an outcry over pollution. A lot of news and advertisements were published in newspapers and many rumours were spread. Now the BJP government has committed a huge fraud regarding pollution. They have installed six Air Quality Monitoring Systems in forests and green areas so that the pollution figures can be reduced.” He alleged that the BJP government was “fooling the public and playing with their health” by portraying an artificial improvement in Delhi’s air quality.

Bharadwaj claimed that three of the new stations are being proposed inside lush-green campuses — Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in south Delhi, and Netaji Subhash University (West Campus) in west Delhi.

One of the stations is proposed deep inside the Central Ridge at the ISRO Earth Station near Malcha Mahal, while two others are planned in relatively greener areas like Delhi Cantonment and the Commonwealth Games Sports Complex in east Delhi.

He alleged that monitoring systems at locations reporting high pollution levels were being neglected or tampered with to ensure that overall pollution figures appear lower.

Sirsa in a post on X claimed that the decision to install the stations in these six locations was taken by the AAP government when it was in power.

“When the air in Delhi is getting clean and pollution is decreasing due to the continuous work done by the BJP government, you could not tolerate it and you started lying, but the public understands all your deceit and lies cannot stand in the light of truth,” he said.

Pollution, particularly during the winter months, has long been a major concern for Delhi, with air quality often plunging into ‘very poor’ and ‘hazardous’ categories. The issue of air pollution was a key point of contention between the AAP and the BJP during the Delhi Assembly elections.

The BJP recently stormed to power in the national capital, winning 48 of the 70 Assembly seats in the February elections, ending AAP’s decade-long governance in the city. The AAP managed to secure 22 seats. PTI MHS VN VN