On Wednesday, Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi attacked Arvind Kejriwal, claiming that the city didn’t need a “part-time chief minister” who wasn’t worried about its issues but was engaged in “political tourism.” The Aam Aadmi Party administration had not yet responded to Lekhi’s accusations. The senior BJP leader cited RTI responses when he said that the Kejriwal administration had spent only little more than Rs. 272 crore on combating pollution out of the more than Rs. 1,286 crore in environment cess that had been collected over the previous seven years.

She mentioned that no money had been set up for employee training or for the construction of infrastructure to combat pollution. “This person (Kejriwal) is doing nothing. Delhi does not need a part time chief minister who spends his time in political tourism campaigning in poll bound states,” the Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture made a comment at a press conference.

Meenakshi Lekhi claimed that the “inaction” and “running away” from obligations of the Kejriwal government are to blame for the widespread ailments brought on by air pollution in both elderly and young people.  “He had promised to build 10 smog towers but just one was constructed at a cost of Rs 22 crore. Even that is not working despite spending Rs 80 lakh on its maintenance every month,” she asserted.

Meenakshi Lekhi requested that Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena appoint an investigation to determine why the smog tower was not operating despite the fact that a significant sum of money had been spent on its upkeep.