New Delhi [India], June 21 : Amid rising concerns over pollution, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has called for improvement in National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), saying "one of the biggest blunders" has been the dilution of its focus to measure and monitory only PM10 rather than PM2.5.
He also said that there has been underutilisation of funds under the programme.
Jairam Ramesh said PM2.5 pollution is the cause of the thousands of deaths.
"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 monitory only PM10 (particulate matter of less than 10 mm diameter) - rather than PM2.5 which is the cause of the thousands of deaths we see annually," he said in a post on X.
"Now we learn that even as the scope and ambit of this program was shrunk, the funds utilisation has remained uninspiring. On average, the 130 cities receiving money under this scheme have utilised only 70-78.5% of the funds received. Key cities like Delhi - whose annual air pollution season is a public health crisis and a national shame - have used less than 33% of the funds received under this scheme. Neighbouring Faridabad spent only 26.7% of the funds. Noida spent less than 10% of the funds allocated and even the PM's constituency of Varanasi trailed far behind the national average with a fund utilisation of 48.85%," he added.
National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in January 2019 with an aim to improve air quality in 130 cities (non-attainment cities and Million Plus Cities in 24 States/UTs through implementation of National, State and City level clean air action plans.