Steps taken/schemes being to prevent and control the air pollution

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 4153

TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.03.2023

Schemes to control Air Pollution

4153. DR. G. RANJITH REDDY

SHRI RATANSINH MAGANSINH RATHOD
SHRI PATEL HASMUKHBHAI SOMABHAI
SHRI VIVEK NARAYAN SHEJWALKAR

Will the MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

(a) the details of steps taken/schemes being run to prevent and control the air pollution;

(b) the amount of funds released to the State Governments during the last five years to resolve the said problem;

(c) whether the Government is taking assistance of Social Service Institutions to tackle the said issue of Air Pollution;

(d) whether it is true that 15th Finance Commission has identified Hyderabad as one of the urban agglomerations for performance-based grants to improve air quality; and

(e) if so, the details of fund sanctioned, released and spent on Hyderabad urban agglomeration, so far?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT,

FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY

(a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in January, 2019 with an aim to improve air quality in 131 cities (non- attainment cities and Million Plus Cities in 24 States by engaging all stakeholders. The Programme envisages to achieve reductions up to 40% or achievement of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter10 (PM 10) concentrations by 2025-26 over baseline 2017-18. NCAP focuses on preparation and implementation of National, State and City level action plans of the targeted 131 cites. Initiatives taken by the Government to improve air quality are given at Annexure I.

The details of funds released to the 24 State/UT during FY 2019-20 to FY 2022-23 under NCAP are enclosed at Annexure II.

Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration (UA) has been identified as one of the Million Plus Cities under XV Finance Commission (FC)Ambient Air Quality performance grants. The amount of Rs.443.5 crore has been released to Hyderabad UA under XV th Finance Commission Air quality performance grant during FY 2021-22 till 2022-23 for taking air quality improvement measures. Details of year-wise funds allocated and released to Hyderabad UA are provided at Annexure- III.

Under NCAP, guidelines for engagement of National Knowledge Network (NKN) and Institutes of Repute (IoR) have been issued for providing technical assistance and monitoring of clean air action plans. NKN has been formed comprising of experts in air quality management from various institutions/organisations for providing scientific and technical support to the Programme. Further, IoRs have been identified for providing technical assistance to States/UTs and Cities and monitoring of city action plans.

Annexure I

I. Initiatives of the Government to improve air quality Government has taken several initiatives to improve air quality. The following actions were initiated by the Union Government:

A. Vehicular Emission

Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2018 in NCT of Delhi and from 1st April, 2020 for rest of the country.
Network of metro rails for public transport are enhanced and more cities are covered.
Development of Expressway and Highways are also reducing the fuel consumption and pollution.
Eastern Peripheral Expressway & Western Peripheral Expressway has been operationalized to divert non destined traffic from Delhi.
Ban on 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old vehicles in Delhi NCR.
Environment protection charges (EPC) have been imposed on diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000cc and above in Delhi NCR.
Introduction of cleaner/alternate fuels like CNG, LPG, ethanol blending in petrol.
Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) -2 schemes has been rolled out.
Permit requirement for electric vehicles has been exempted.
Promotion of public transport and improvements in roads and building of more bridges to ease congestion on roads.

B. Industrial Emission

Ban on use of pet coke and furnace oil in NCR, use of pet coke in processes in cement plants, lime kilns and calcium carbide manufacturing units.
Stringent emission norms for Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPPs).
Shifting of industrial units to PNG/cleaner fuel in Delhi
Installation of online continuous emission monitoring devices in highly polluting industries.
Shifting of brick kilns in Delhi- NCR to zig-zag technology for reduction of pollution

C. Air Pollution due to dust and burning of waste

Notification of 7 waste management rules covering solid waste, plastic waste, e-waste, bio-medical waste, C&D waste, hazardous waste and battery waste.
Setting up infrastructure such as waste processing plants.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and e-waste management.
Ban on burning of biomass/garbage.

D. Monitoring of Ambient Air Quality

Expansion of air quality monitoring network of manual as well as continuous monitoring stations under programmes such as the National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP).
Initiation of pilot projects to assess alternate ambient monitoring technologies such as low-cost sensors and satellite-based monitoring.
Public Grievances and Response System (PGRS) is developed under NCAP
Emergency Response System (ERS) has been prepared in NCAP cities.
Air quality monitoring cell has been constituted across the country in NCAP Cities.
Implementation of Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow. The system provides alerts for taking timely actions.
Public Complaints regarding air pollution issues in Delhi NCR are taken through ‘Sameer App’, ‘Emails’ ([email protected]) and ‘Social Media Networks’ (Facebook and Twitter).
At present, Ambient air quality monitoring network of the country presently consists of 1340 stations (Manual + CAAQM Stations), covering 489 cities in 28 States and 7 Union Territories (UT). The manual network consists of 910 stations in 389 cities covering 28 States and 7 UTs and CAAQMS network have 430 stations in 227 cities covering 27 States and 4 UTs.

Annexure II

The details of funds released to the 24 State/UT’s during FY 2019-20 to FY 2022-23
Sr. no	State	Funds released (in Rs. crore)
1	Assam	33.56
2	Andhra Pradesh	310.68
3	Chandigarh	23.05
4	Chhattisgarh	246.71
5	Gujarat	793.7
6	Himachal Pradesh	14.31
7	Jammu & Kashmir	51.03
8	Jharkhand	279.44
9	Karnataka	564.96
10	madhya Pradesh	599.09
11	Maharashtra	1684.32
12	Odisha	54.38
13	Punjab	208.15
14	Rajasthan	529.57
15	Tamilnadu	493.89
16	Telangana	459.9
17	Uttar Pradesh	1333.94
18	Uttarakhand	39.09
19	West Bengal	776.67
20	Bihar	317.16
21	Nagaland	10.4
22	Meghalaya	3.23
23	Delhi	33.75
24	Haryana	54.3
Total		8915.28

Annexure III

Details of year-wise funds allocated and released to Hyderabad UA under XVFC
	FY 20-21	FY 21-22	FY 22-23	Total
Funds Allocated	234	118	122	474
Funds Released	234	118	91.5	443.5

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