India’s most polluted: 30% have no clean-up plan

The News

• Only 73 out of 102 cities, with alarming air pollution levels, have submitted a plan of remedial action under National Clean Air Campaign monitored by CPCB.

 

Summary

• Under National Clean Air Program, the State Pollution Control Boards were directed to implement several pollution abatement measures in non-attainment cities.
• The important measures are:
  • Mitigation measures related to vehicular emissions.
  • Re-suspension of road dust due to construction and demolition activities.
  • Control of emissions from bio-mass, municipal solid waste burning, industrial pollution.
• 29 of the non-attainment cities are yet to submit their city-specific action plans to tackle air pollution.

 

About NACP

• In December 2017, the Union government announced the National Clean Air Progamme (NCAP) that proposes multiple strategies to combat air pollution across the country.
• NCAP is India’s first attempt at working out a coordinated system to curb air pollution.
• It requires the states to frame their own Clean Air Programmes.
• The primary goal of NCAP is to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards across the country within a stipulated timeframe.

 

 

Objectives

• To augment and evolve ambient air quality monitoring network across the country to build a reliable database.
• Ensuring public participation in planning and implementation of air pollution policies.
• To have a feasible management plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution.

 

Components of NCAP

• Tackle pollution from various sources including power plants, transport, industry, residential and agriculture sectors etc.
• Increase number of manual air quality monitoring stations from 703 to 1,000.
• Expand the network of the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS)
• Set up Air Information Centre for data analysis, interpretation and dissemination through GIS platforms.

City-Specific Action Plans for non-attainment cities

• NCAP has a city-specific action plans consisting pollution abatement measures for 102 non-attainment cities.
• A non-attainment city is the one which has air quality worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
• Totally 102 cities have been identified 94 cities as non-attainment cities on the basis of 5-years data generated under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme.
• All big metros are on the list including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhopal Jaipur etc.
• The plan for 102 non-attainment cities will have three timelines to gradually reduce air pollution.
• Under the timelines, air pollution in these cities will be reduced by:

1. 35% in the next three years
2. 50% in the next five years
3. 70-80% in the next 10 years.

• States are entrusted with the responsibility to frame their own city-specific plan.
• Centre would assist states in building capacities to reduce pollution level in tune with the prescribed timelines.