Question : Air Pollution in Metropolitan Cities

(a) whether the Government has made a provision in the General Budget 2021 to address the issue of air pollution in 42 cities of the country and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of funds allocated for the said purpose in the General Budget 2021 including the amount of funds utilized, State-wise including the above said 42 cities;
(c) whether the Government proposes to include the districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar under the said category in the coming years; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a)& (b) Government has made a provision of Rs 2217 crore in the General Budget 2021 for Ambient Air Quality Grant for the 42 million plus cities/UAs of the country. The list of cities, State wise with the fund allocated for 2021-2022 is provided in Annexure I.

(c) & (d) 42 million plus cities/UAs of all the states have been included to receive funds for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 based on improvement in air quality which includes all the million plus cities in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar.

These million cities are Durg Bhilainagar and Raipur in Chhattisgarh; Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Ranchi in Jharkhand; Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat in Gujarat; Jodhpur, Jaipur and Kota in Rajasthan and Patna in Bihar.
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