15 Of World's 20 Most Polluted Cities Are In India And Most Of Their MPs Are Cabinet Ministers

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.

Here are most polluted cities in India which also form your election constituencies

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.)

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Pollution isn¡¯t just a problem. It's turning out to be a matter of survival.

Here are current MPs of these cities

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

These cities form half of the union cabinet

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?

#ITCounts is an Indiatimes initiative to move beyond the noise and the name-calling and focus on issues that really matter to our generation. We aim to be more about migration, pollution, LGBTQ rights, women's issues and healthcare than about Pakistan, political posturing and trolling.

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