NATIONAL CLEAN AIR PROGRAMME - ENVIRONMENT
News: No
change in air quality in most cities covered by national programme
What's in the news?
● Four
years since the introduction of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) India's
first national policy on curbing air pollution - air quality has improved in only 49 out of 131 cities in 2021-22
from the previous financial year's figure, according to a report by the Centre
for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Key takeaways:
● The
report finds that only 38 of the 131 cities that were given annual pollution
reduction targets under agreements signed between State Pollution Control
Boards (SPCBS), Urban Local Bodies (ULBS) and the Centre managed to meet the
targets for 2021-22.
National Clean Air Programme:
● It
is a pollution control initiative that aims to reduce the concentration of particles (PM10 & PM2.5) by 20-30% by
2024.
● It
will have 2017 as the base year for
comparison and 2019 as the first year.
● It
is to be implemented in 102
non-attainment cities. These cities are chosen on the basis of Ambient Air
Quality India (2011-2015) and WHO report 2014/2018.
● It
comes under the Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change.
Implementation:
● For
disbursing funds, the Central Pollution Control Board, which coordinates the
programme, only considers levels of PM10, the relatively larger, coarser
particles.
● At
the Centre, Apex Committee at the
Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change and at the State level, Chief Secretary Level
Committee will be constituted.
● Sectoral
working groups, National level Project Monitoring Unit and Project
Implementation Unit.
● State
level project monitoring unit.
● City
level review committee under the Municipal Commissioner and District Management
level Committee in the Districts.
● Setting up Air
Information Centre - responsible for
creating a dashboard, data analysis, interpretation, dissemination.
Key takeaways:
● Cities
are required to quantify improvement starting 2020-21, which requires 15% and
more reduction in the annual average PM10 concentration and a concurrent
increase in “good air” days to at least 200. Anything fewer will be considered
‘low’ and the funding consequently reduced.
● For
disbursing funds, the Central Pollution Control Board, which coordinates the
programme, only considers levels of PM10, the relatively larger, coarser
particles. However PM2.5, the smaller, more dangerous particles, aren’t
monitored as robustly in all cities, mostly due to the lack of equipment.