NCAP completes Five years

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Environment Conservation

Source: India Today

Context: The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), completing five years, faces scrutiny on fund utilization and air quality improvements in the 131 funded cities.

Over the past five years, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) has shown a mixed performance. Studies reveal that out of 49 cities assessed for PM2.5 levels, 27 witnessed improvements, while for PM10, 24 out of 46 cities saw positive changes. Notably, cities like Varanasi, Agra, and Jodhpur stood out for achieving significant reductions in both PM2.5 and PM10 levels.

About NCAP:

The Launch: In January 2019, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to prepare clean air action plans.

The mandate of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP):

1. Aim: It aims to improve air quality in 131 cities (non-attainment cities (NAC) and Million Plus Cities) in 24 States by engaging all stakeholders.
   1. 1. The cities which are exceeding the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 5 consecutive years are identified as NAC by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
      2. Under NCAP, 131 non-attainment citieshave been identified across the country based on the Air Quality data from 2014-2018.
2. To achieve reductions up to 40% of Particulate Matter (PM10 and 2.5) concentrations by 2025-26, base year 2017.
3. Preparation of the city-specific action plansincluding measures to strengthen the monitoring network, reduce vehicular/industrial emissions, and increase public awareness.
4. Implementation of the city-specific action plans to be regularly monitored by Committees at the Central and State level namely Steering Committee, Monitoring Committee and Implementation Committee.

Objectives of NCAP

1. To augment and evolve effective and proficient ambient air quality monitoring networks across the country to ensure a comprehensive and reliable database
2. To have efficient data dissemination and public outreach mechanisms for timely measures for the prevention and mitigation of air pollution
3. To have a feasible management planfor the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution.

Performance of National Clean Air Programme:  

Positive

1. Monitoring station:Out of the targeted 1500 manual monitoring stations to be installed across the country, 818 have been installed.
2. Region-specific programme:A city-specific action plan has been developed for all the major cities of India. For instance, Delhi, Mumbai etc.
   1. 1. 131 cities of the country have developed City Action Plans and Micro Action Plans
3. PRANA web portal: The Portal for Regulation of Air Pollution in Non-Attainment Cities which provides all information related to various policies/programs/schemes/activities of the stakeholders along with the progress made towards improvement in air quality across the country.
4. Improvement:There has been an overall improvement in Particulate Matter concentration in 95 cities including 20 cities conforming to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards in the year 2021-22 compared to 2017.

The issue facing NCAP:

1. Unsatisfactory performance:The CSE in its national analysis of PM2.5 levels in cities for which data is available found that between 2019 and 2021, only 14 of 43 (NCAP) cities registered a 10% or more reduction in their PM2.5 level between 2019 and 2021.
   1. 1. On the other hand, out of 46 non-NCAP cities,21 recorded significant improvement in their annual 5 value with a 5% or more decline between 2019 and 2021.
      2. Mumbai witnessed over 38% increase in 5 and about 37% in PM10 levels since 2019.
2. Funding issue:For disbursing funds, the Central Pollution Control Board, which coordinates the programme, only considers levels of PM10, the relatively larger, coarser particles. However, PM2.5, the smaller, more dangerous particles, aren’t monitored as robustly in all cities, mostly due to the lack of equipment.
3. Compartmentalizing rural-urban areas: The scheme focuses on air pollution mitigation within cities while ignoring rural air pollution thus compartmentalizing both.
4. Sluggish improvement:The progress is even more sluggish in equipping all manual stations with PM2.5 monitoring, where only 261 stations have PM2.5 monitoring facilities.
5. No carrying capacity studies:None of the 132 non-attainment cities has completed their carrying capacity studies.
   1. Carrying capacity is the region’s ability to accumulate and disperse emissions while maintaining breathable air quality.

Conclusion

It is important that NCAP be made legally binding on responsible authorities while setting interim (WHO interim targets) and long-term targets to achieve breathable air equivalent to WHO guideline levels over the next decade.

Further, enhancing transparency in the allocation and utilisation of finances and tracking the indicators through publicly available information under the PRANA web portal developed by CPCB can be a way forward.

Other Initiatives for Reducing Air Pollution:

1. National Ambient Air Quality Programme (NAMP)
2. Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)
3. Switch to Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) Emission Standards
4. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid ) Electric Vehicles (FAME) Scheme

Insta Links:

• National Clean Air Programme

Mains Links:

Highlighting the major mandate and objectives of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), evaluate its performance in mitigating pollution in Indian Cities. (15M)

Prelims Links