Rahul Gandhi seeks discussion on air pollution, govt says ‘willing’

“People are getting cancer. Older people are struggling to breathe. This is an interesting issue because I am certain that there will be full agreement between the government and us on this issue. This is not an ideological issue, this is… everybody in this House would agree that air pollution… the damage it is doing to our people is something that we would like to co-operate on,” he said.

He said the Opposition was more than happy to cooperate on discussing the issue and developing a plan to tackle it.

“There are not many issues these days that the government and the entire Opposition can agree on and I think it’s a very good idea that we have at least one…This is one issue where we can show the country that we can also plan and work together to solve something that is critical,” he said.

“We should all have a discussion in Parliament, and we should try and not make it a discussion where we are abusing you (government) and you are abusing us (Opposition)… there is agreement and the best minds should be put into place to solve this issue,” he said.

One way out, he said, was a detailed discussion followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi putting in place a “methodical and systematic” plan for each city for the coming five to 10 years to make the “lives of our people easier”.

Responding to this, Rijiju said, “The matter was placed before the Business Advisory Committee…government is always prepared to have discussion under any rule,” he said, adding that the government will see how to structure a discussion around it as part of proceedings.