Union Environment Ministry on Thursday said that overall air quality in the country was improved in 2021. In Delhi, the annual concentration of Particulate Matter (PM) has been decreasing gradually since 2016, according to CAAQMS data “Despite increase in number of vehicles, growing population, increased industries activities and adverse meteorology, 27% reduction in PM10 and 22% in PM2.5 in Year 2021 w.r.t 2016 in Delhi was observed,” said Minister of State for Environment, Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply.
The minister was reply to a set of questions filed by member Kartikeya Sharma. The questions included the steps taken to reduce pollution in Delhi and other cities. The member also asked that whether the government’s flagship programme NCAP was able to reduce to the air pollution. The minister said that out of 131 identified cities, decrease in PM10 Concentration has been observed in 95 cities during 2021-22 as compared to levels during FY 2017-18 including Delhi.
The minister said that this was the direct result of sever measures that incluced city specific action plan include strengthening of ambient air quality network, source apportionment studies, dust mitigation equipment, composting units, infrastructure for non-motorized transport, shifting to clean energy in unorganized sectors etc. On the government’s flagship programme, NCAP, the minister said that city specific air action plans have been rolled out for implementation in 132 non-attainment cities and million plus cities including Delhi with a target to reduce air pollution levels across the country. Under NCAP, grant of Rs. 855.51 crores has been released for initiating actions under city action plan during FY 2019-20 to 2022-23 (till January 25, 2023) including Delhi where grant of Rs 33.75 crores has been released to Delhi for initiating actions.
