Do the politicians really bother about the lives of the people who vote them to power? The answer is no. India is set to hold elections to form the government for the seventeenth time since Independence, and the people - more than a billion now - are still searching for the leaders who really care for them. There are several parameters to debate their abysmal performance after becoming members of parliament, but we perhaps do not have time left for that.
According to a 2019 report by the?State of Global Air (SOGA), more than 1.2 million (12 lakh) Indians died in 2017 due to air pollution. In 2015, 13 lakh Indians died due to pollution-related ailments. And guess what? In a recent report it has been found that 15 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India.
While Delhi, which has seven constituencies for Members of Parliament (MP) elections, is known for air pollution world over, the other cities escape the wrath of media despite being more polluted than Delhi. Gurugram is the worst when it comes to pollution followed by Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Bhiwadi and Noida and three of them are the satellite cities of Delhi and these have more air pollution than Delhi. Yes, these cities have one MP each.??
The SOGA report also says 92?per cent?people across the world breathe air which, according to PM2.5 levels, are far worse than the prescribed levels by World Health Organisation (WHO). And over half of the total deaths attributed to air pollution happened in India and China in 2017.
(PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of?less?than 2.5?micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair. Commonly written as PM2.5, particles in this category are so small that they can only be detected with an electron microscope.)
BCCL
Pollution?isn¡¯t just a problem. It's turning out to be a matter of survival.
Delhi is represented by seven MPs and you need to find out your own who¡¯s your MP in your area. But Varanasi is one city which is there in this list of 15 and the city¡¯s MP is none other than our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly, here are the other 14 cities and their MPs:
City? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Member of Parliament
Gurugram? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Rao Inderjeet Singh of BJP
Ghaziabad? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? VK Singh of BJP
Faridabad? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Krishan Pal Gurjar of BJP
Bhiwadi? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Karan Singh Yadav of Congress
Noida? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Dr Mahesh Sharma of BJP
Patna? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Ram Kirpal Yadav of BJP?
Lucknow? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Rajnath Singh of BJP
Jodhpur? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Gajender Singh Shekhawat of BJP
Muzaffarpur? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Ajay Nishad of BJP
Varanasi? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? PM Narendra Modi
Agra? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Ram Shankar Katheria of BJP
Moradabad? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar of BJP
Gaya? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Hari Manjhi of BJP?
Jind? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Ramesh Kaushik of BJP
As India goes to polls in less than a week, it's time to ask questions and choose our representatives carefully. If your leaders don't prioritise the existential challenges, is it worth sending them to Parliament???
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