National Clean Air Program falls short: Cities fail to utilize funds effectively, says Congress

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday criticized the government’s National Clean Air Program, stating that it is “ill-conceived in many ways.”

“The National Clean Air Program is ill-conceived in many ways. One of the biggest blunders has been the dilution of its focus to measure and monitor only PM10… Now we learn that even as the scope and ambit of this program was shrunk, the funds’ utilization has remained uninspiring,” he underlined.

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Taking note of low fund utilization, Ramesh asserted, “On average, 130 cities receiving money under the NCAP have utilized only 70-78.5% of the funds received.”

Highlighting what he said was poor performance in key cities, the Congress leader pointed out that Delhi used less than 33% of the funds received, despite facing a severe public health crisis due to air pollution while Faridabad spent only 26.7% of the funds. Noida, he said utilized less than 10% of the allocated funds while Varanasi trailed far behind the national average with a fund utilization of 48.85%, despite being the Prime Minister’s constituency.

Ramesh’s criticism apparently highlights the need for a more effective approach to addressing air pollution in India. He had also underscored NCAP’s shortcomings, including inadequate fund utilization and a narrow focus on PM10. He said that these must be addressed to mitigate the country’s air pollution crisis.