Centre committed to reducing air pollution level in 122 most polluted cities, says Prakash Javadekar

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said that the government is committed to reducing the air pollution level in 122 most polluted cities. Speaking at a webinar on the first-ever International Day of Clean Air For Blue Skies, Javadekar underscored the problem of air pollution and said that in 2014, the government launched the Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring and currently the pollution levels are being tracked on eight parameters.

The minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing the issue of air pollution in his Independence Day speech and putting across the goal of Holistic improvement in air quality in 100 cities. Prime Minister himself is determined to bring this change, said the union Environment Minister.

Javadekar along with Minister of State Babul Supriyo and Secretary, Ministry of Environment, R P Gupta launched a brochure on Integrated Measures to Combat Air Pollution under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

The Minister said that with the country now having migrated to BS-VI standards, quality petrol and diesel is provided in the country, which is an important initiative to fight against pollution. He said that in the last few years, roads and highways are being constructed by the government at a record pace and due to this less pollution is taking place in comparison to previous times.

Stressing that states must now work with city-specific plans, as every city has a different source of pollution the Environment Minister said that the use of the electric vehicle must be encouraged.  He said brick kilns in various states should adopt zig-zag technology to reduce pollution emerging out of them. The Union Minister said that people participation is must to clean the air. Car-pooling and use of public transport must be promoted.

In January 2019, the Environment Ministry had launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to tackle the problem of air pollution in a comprehensive manner with a target to achieve 20 to 30 per cent reduction in PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year. The plan identified earlier 102 non-attainment cities, across 23 States and Union Territories. 20 more non-attainment cities have been included under NCAP based on latest data trend on air quality.

The webinar which was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on the occasion of first-ever International Day of Clean Air For Blue Skies was attended by Principal Secretaries of the Urban Development Department and Environment Department of 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Commissioner of 122 cities as identified in NCAP programme also participated and put forth their experiences and best practices.

The General Assembly of United Nations on December 19, 2019, adopted a resolution to observe the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on September 07 every year starting from 2020.