The Congress on Friday sought chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation for doing nothing to curb Delhi’s air pollution except making false claims in advertisements and blaming others.

As Punjab — the punching bag for Delhi in the context of pollution — is now ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal felt compelled to take responsibility with the excuse that the Bhagwant Mann government barely got six months to fix this problem. However, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said: “If you are responsible, resign. Not six months, you got eight years to solve the problem because the major cause of pollution is local.”

Vallabh said: “The CSE (Centre for Science & Environment) survey in the last week of October said 33 per cent pollution in Delhi is caused by local source and another 33 per cent by NCR (National Capital Region) sources. Twenty-five per cent is caused by other districts and only 9 per cent by biomass burning.”

The Delhi government always blamed Punjab for stubble-burning and mounted abnormal pressures on the farmers even when it was established that the smoke from fields was a minor factor.

Vallabh taunted both the Prime Minister and the chief minister saying: “Pollution on, Modi-Kejriwal gone. Both Modi and Kejriwal run away from Delhi when the air quality turns severe, leaving the people, including the newborn and the old, to breathe toxic air. Smoke equal to 10 cigarettes is inhaled by the people in this atmosphere. Lakhs of people are struggling to breathe, apart from the patients of lung disease for whom it is a question of life and death. But Kejriwal will take his chartered plane and fly away. The Prime Minister will be seen in Uttarakhand hills and Gujarat.”

While Kejriwal bitterly attacked others and asked for specific timeline for fixing the problem of stubble-burning from Punjab and Haryana till last year, he was singing a different tune on Friday, asking people not to do politics on this issue. He had also launched a massive publicity blitz by telling the entire country through TV advertisements and hoardings across Delhi about his war on pollution. The air quality index has gone from bad to worse over these years.

Arguing that Kejriwal relied only on excuses instead of taking substantive measures on boosting public transport and addressing local factors, Vallabh said: “Let Kejriwal resign and the new chief minister bring out a comprehensive blueprint on how to check pollution. Our chief minister Shiela Dikshit took concrete measures instead of making excuses and blaming others. Delhi was known to be clean and green Delhi then.”

He mocked at the Union environment minister, saying: “Who he is? Does the Prime Minister know who the environment minister is?”

Environment minister Bhupendra Yadav is a senior BJP leader who too has condemned Kejriwal for turning Delhi into a gas chamber.