A top panel meeting scheduled on November 15 at 11 AM to discuss the urgent need for curbing air pollution, had to be postponed as only 4 Parliamentary Members turned up. There were 21 Lok Sabha members and 8 Rajya Sabha members invited.  The chairman of the standing committee Jagdambika Pal, Hasnain Masoodi, CR Patil and Sanjay Singh were the only MPs present at the meeting.  Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, Gautam Gambhir, Hema Malini were among those who were invited and did not turn up for the meeting. 

Speaking to NDTV, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said that he was not aware of the meeting and will look into the matter to find out why the members were absent. Previously, Newslaundry had reported that Prakash Javadekar postponed 3 meetings related to discuss tackling air pollution, scheduled in the months of September and October to campaign for Maharashtra elections.

Another ironic part of the incident is that Gautam Gambhir, who is the member of Lok Sabha from Delhi, was spotted relishing ‘jalebi’ in Indore. He chose to attend a test cricket match happening at Indore between India and Bangladesh over this crucial event. 

Delhiites ; You chose Gautam over Atishi, who is busy with Cricket Commentary & Skipped the meeting on #Pollution in Delhi #gautamgambhir #ShameOnGautamGambhir pic.twitter.com/jdQYNBFrp7

— PRAJNESH PUROHIT (@PurohitPrajnesh) November 15, 2019

Jagdambika Pal, who is the head of this standing committee was furious over this disappointing incident and was forced to postpone the meeting. He was found saying in front of the committee that he will be reporting this misconduct by the MPs to the speaker. 

While Delhi citizens continue to battle Air Pollution, 25 MPs chose not to prioritize the emergency. The people, especially the children on the streets are contracting respiratory infections and dreadful reports of harmful health effects due to air pollution are surfacing. It is shameful how the parliamentarians who are supposed to serve the public are running away from this alarming issue.

Also Read: Fact Check: Does Burning Camphor (Kapoor) Helps To Counter Air Pollution?