UP Assembly Elections 2022: Climate change, promise of clean air and water missing from poll agenda

UP polls 2022: Yogi Adityanath was speaking at a rally in Sultanpur. (File)

The vital issue of clean air and water is missing from the Uttar Pradesh elections though several cities here often figure in the list of the world's 10 most polluted.

Despite clean water and air being the mainstay of life, major political parties, except for the Samajwadi Party, Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, have not included the issue of environmental protection prominently in their election manifestos.

Even for the parties that mentioned it, the concern for environment remains on paper as everyone is busy talking about Jinnah, Pakistan, vote bank politics and 'pariwarvad' to sway voters to their sides.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has a degree in environmental engineering from Australia but his party manifesto just has a reference about climate issue sans any major announcement to deal with the problem. Even the Congress has touched on some aspects of climate change in its manifesto, but has not spoken of any concrete initiative.

The issue hasn't got much importance in BJP poll manifesto. The saffron party has mentioned cleaning of the river Ganga but has not mentioned anything about countering climate change. The saffron party has mentioned cleaning of the river Ganga but has not mentioned anything about countering climate change.

According to a report by climate think tank 'Climate Trends', the Indus-Gangetic plains are the most polluted areas in the country in terms of air. At the heart of this vast landmass, 99.4 per cent of the population of Uttar Pradesh lives in areas where air pollution levels exceed safe limits.