The Congress launched a blistering offensive against the Modi government on Sunday, characterising India’s deteriorating air quality as a “nationwide, structural crisis” rather than a mere seasonal or regional inconvenience. Citing a damning new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the Union government of presiding over an “exceedingly ineffective and inadequate” policy framework that fails to protect millions of citizens.
The CREA report, which utilised satellite data from 2019 to 2024, revealed that nearly 44 per cent of Indian cities—1,787 out of 4,041 statutory towns—suffer from chronic air pollution, with PM2.5 levels consistently breaching national safety standards.
Ramesh was particularly scathing regarding the government’s flagship National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which he dismissed as a “misnomer” that has devolved into a “Notional Clean Air Programme.” He pointed out a massive gap in the scheme’s reach, noting that while over 1,700 cities are chronically polluted, the NCAP covers only 130 of them.
“In effect, the programme currently addresses just about 4 per cent of India’s chronically polluted cities,” Ramesh stated, further highlighting that even within this limited scope, 28 cities lack continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations. This critique comes against a backdrop of worsening public health indicators, as India’s permissible PM2.5 limits—currently 60 micrograms per cubic metre for 24 hours—remain significantly more relaxed than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) strict guideline of 15 micrograms.
To address this systemic failure, the Congress has demanded that the government officially declare air pollution a public health emergency and undertake a comprehensive revamp of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. Ramesh argued that the current funding of approximately Rs 10,500 crore is “grossly inadequate” for the scale of the challenge. “Our cities need 10 to 20 times more funding. NCAP must be made at least a Rs 25,000-crore programme and expanded to cover the 1,000 most polluted towns in the country,” he asserted.
The party’s roadmap for reform includes adopting PM2.5 as the primary performance yardstick, providing the NCAP with legal backing, and mandating the installation of Flue Gas Desulphurisation systems in all coal-fired power plants by the end of 2026.
Beyond policy technicalities, the Congress accused the Modi government of a deliberate “cover-up” regarding the human cost of the crisis. Ramesh alleged that the government has repeatedly attempted to downplay the health impacts of pollution in Parliament, specifically citing instances in July 2024 and December 2025.
“The government is not blind to the truth; it is only attempting to cover up the scale of its incompetence and negligence,” Ramesh alleged. As multiple studies continue to link prolonged exposure to fine particulate matter with severe cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, the Congress maintained that only a large-scale overhaul of environmental laws and a rollback of “anti-people” amendments can address what has become one of India’s most pressing existential threats.