(a) whether air pollution is regularly monitored across the country; if so, the details thereof;
(b) the steps taken to control the increasing levels of air pollution in such cities where pollution leads to smog during winters; and
(c) the steps taken to promote uses of CNG especially in areas which regularly record high level of air pollution?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)
(a) & (b): Ambient air quality is being monitored in 344 cities/ towns through 804 manual stations and in 129 cities through 233 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations.
City specific action plans are being prepared and implemented in 122 non-attainment cities. The identification of these cities is based on air quality levels exceeding National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) from 2014-2018 including 09 cities in Punjab, 01 in Chandigarh, 03 in Uttarakhand, 15 Uttar Pradesh, 03 in Bihar, 01 in Jharkhand, 07 in West Bengal and 05 Assam.
City action plans include actions to control vehicular emission, road dust, biomass/crop/garbage/MSW burning, construction activities, industrial emission and other city specific sources. Further, all non-attainment cities have been requested to expedite the process of notifying Emergency Response System and establishing Public Grievance &Redressal System and complete it within next quarter, before onset of winter.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as a national level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country. NCAP is a mid-term, five-year action plan keeping 2019 as the base year. Taking into account available international experiences and national studies, a tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of particulate matter concentration by 2024 is proposed under NCAP. This is keeping 2017 as base year for comparison of concentration.
Total fund of Rs. 224.74 crores have been released to respective SPCBs for components sanctioned under NCAP during 2019-20. 60% of fund i.e. Rs.172.86 crores has been released to 90 cities including 07 cities of north east region. Further remaining 40% of funds have been released to 43 cities amounting to Rs.51,88,00,000 based on requests received by MoEF&CC.
(c): Shifting to cleaner fuel including CNG, use of CNG vehicles are components under city action plans.
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