Congress MPs on Thursday submitted Adjournment Motion notices in the Lok Sabha seeking a discussion on worsening air pollution in Delhi-NCR and other northern states. On the fourth day of the Winter Session, Manickam Tagore, Manish Tewari and Vijay Vasanth urged the Centre to declare pollution a national health emergency.

Tagore said the government is “paralysed,” offering advisories and committees instead of decisive action, despite evidence linking pollution to cancers, kidney ailments, gastrointestinal issues and metabolic diseases. He called for a legally backed national clean air mission, strict penalties for polluters, emergency health measures and coordinated scientific policymaking.

Vijay Vasanth criticised the government for failing to even measure the crisis, alleging that without real-time data, bodies like CAQM and CPCB could not enforce GRAP or issue warnings. He demanded a national public health emergency, restoration of monitoring stations, accountability for polluters and a time-bound clean-air mission supported by law.

Delhi’s air quality showed slight improvement on Thursday morning, with the AQI at 299 compared to 342 recorded on December 3. Some areas shifted to the “poor” category, including Najafgarh (286) and IGI Airport T3 (255), while others like Anand Vihar (316), Wazirpur (323) and Patparganj (309) remained in the “very poor” zone under a thick layer of smog. In Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to move the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill, 2025, which seeks additional resources for national security and public health by imposing a cess on certain machines and production processes.