NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday cited a report to claim that air quality is a nation-wide, structural crisis for which the government response is “exceedingly ineffective and inadequate”, as it demanded a thorough reform of the National Clear Air Programme (NCAP).
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that the NCAP propagated as the National Clear Air Programme is actually another type of NCAP—“Notional Clear Air Programme”.
The former environment minister said that a new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has now confirmed “what was always India’s worst-kept secret that the air quality is a nation-wide, structural crisis for which the government response is exceedingly ineffective and inadequate”.
Using satellite data, the study found that nearly 44 per cent of Indian cities that is 1,787 out of 4,041 statutory towns assessed have chronic air pollution, with annual PM2.5 levels consistently exceeding the national standard over five years (2019-2024, excluding 2020), Ramesh said in a statement.
Pointing out that the report also highlighted the ineffectiveness of the National Clear Air Programme, the Congress leader said that despite the scale of the problem (1,787 towns), only 130 cities are covered under the NCAP. Of these 130 cities, 28 still lack Continuous Ambient Air Quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS), he claimed.
Among the 102 cities with monitoring infrastructure, 100 reported PM10 levels of 80 per cent or higher, Ramesh said, adding that in totality, NCAP currently addresses only 4 per cent of India’s chronically polluted cities, and asserted that it now needs a thorough overhaul and reform.