MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)
(a) and (b) There is no conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of death/disease exclusively with air pollution. Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases. Health is impacted by a number of factors which includes food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc., of the individuals apart from the environment.
(c) Considering the impacts of air pollution on human health Government of India launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which is very comprehensive plan to tackle air pollution problem across the country in a focussed manner to achieve 20 % to 30 % reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 levels by 2024 from 2017 levels. The concerned ministries, State Governments, Research Institutes, Industries, etc. are partner in this effort. Under NCAP, a National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been constituted with a group of experts from IITs and Institutes of Repute as an advisory board for providing capacity building, State of art technologies, suggestions, advisories regarding air pollution mitigation and abatement to CPCB, SPCB and ULBS.
Further,on 15th August 2020, the Hon’ble Prime Minister also announced to improve air quality in more than 100 cities. Hon’ble Prime Minister has also launched Air Quality Index (AQI) in 2015, which provides air pollution information and health effect in simple form, which can be understood even by common persons. National Air Quality Standards are also based on health consideration.
Government has taken several steps for mitigation of air pollution such as introduction of BS-VI, expansion of Metro, operationalization of Eastern and Western peripheral expressways, shifting of industries to PNG, waste processing plants, online round the clock monitoring of red category industries, etc. The details of initiatives taken by government to combat air pollution is at Annexure.
While the Government is making concerted efforts to mitigate air pollution, the citizens should also extend support for the following activities such as:
• Renew your Pollution Under Control Certificate timely.
• Avoid idling of engines.
• Plan your errands to reduce travel time and trips.
• Adopt clean modes of transport.
• Prefer cycles/ e-bikes for short trips.
• Adopt public transportation wherever feasible.
• Avoid Congested routes.Segregate household waste
• Never burn waste
• Take recyclable waste to collection centres & earn from waste too
• Compost leaves and garden waste
• Avoid vigorous sweeping of leaves in gardens/ parks – use wide rakes
• Dispose e-waste responsibly.
• Adopt green good deeds and encourage others too.
• Use public grievance redressal apps to inform air polluting activities to authorities
• Share about ongoing clean initiatives with others.
(d) Concerted actions taken has resulted in improvement trend in Air Quality Index of Delhi and NCR area:
Air Quality Index 2016 2017 2018 2019
Number of Good to
Moderate days 108 152 159 182
Number of Poor to Severe
days 246 213 206 183
(e) In Financial Year 2019-20 and 2020-21 funds to the tune of 336.8 crores have been sanctioned to non-attainment cities under NCAP for initiating actions such as expansion of monitoring network, construction and demolition waste management facilities, non-motorised transport infrastructure, green buffers, mechanical street sweepers, composting units etc. ? 4400 crores have been allocated to 42 million plus cities in FY 2020-21 for tackling the problem of air pollution of which ?2200 crores have been released. Further, an amount of? 2217 crores has been allocated for FY 2021-22 for improvement of air quality in these cities. A provision of 1,41,678 crores over a period of 5 years from 2021-2026 has been made for Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 with a focus on air pollution reduction by effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities and bio-remediation of all legacy dump sites.
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