CEED launches ‘Haqdari Hawa Ki’ campaign for clean air in Bihar

Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) has launched a citizen campaign 'Haqdari Hawa Ki’ on Monday through a webinar, which aims to bring the voices of peoples in support of clean air and develop ‘citizen action groups’ across the state for implementation of Clean Air Action Plan mandated under the National Clean Air Program (NCAP). The campaign ‘Haqdari Hawa Ki’ demands for ensuring ‘right to clean and breathable air’ to all, and it is being run through ‘Clean Air Implement Network (CAIN)', which is an initiative of CEED, in a collaborative manner with active participation of citizens groups, eminent doctors, research think-tank, academia, media, private sector and civil society organisations in Bihar.

While speaking at the launch event, Mr. Ramapati Kumar, CEO of CEED said that, “It is a well known fact that the citizens played a critical role in shaping the public policy and program and over the years a relentless effort by civil society groups have positively resulted in formulation of clean air action plan for three key cities of Bihar, namely Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur. However, the effective implementation of clean air action plan remains a big challenge and therefore CEED through ‘Haqdari Hawa Ki’ campaign will work towards creating citizen led initiatives to build an enabling platform to ensure the effective implementation of clean air action plan in letter and spirit.” The campaign further aims to cultivate transparency, strengthening governance and most importantly to bring spotlight on accountability for ensuring breathable Bihar and a healthy environment, Mr. Kumar concluded.

‘Haqdari Hawa Ki’ is an umbrella campaign of CEED in the Indo-Gangetic region that specifically covers other states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jharkhand for bringing spotlight on the tier 2 and 3 cities missing from the list of ‘non attainment cities’ and facilitates the formulation and effective implementation of NCAP. Apart form bringing the community voices in favour of clean air through the data and sciences, the campaign attempts to empower and capacitate a range of stakeholders located in the state, private and civil society realms on corrective and mitigation measures. CEED thorough its own verticals and support groups such as ‘Clean Air Implementation Network (CAIN)’, ‘Mothers Network’, ‘Energy Collective’, and ‘Planet Paltan’ will be a connecting thread for more than 800 CSOs and NGOs partners for 24x7 advocacy and campaigning.

Elaborating on the demands of the campaign in Bihar, Ms Ankita Jyoti, Senior Program Officer, CEED said that, “Accelerating the implementation of clean air action plan for Gaya, Muzaffarpur, and Patna is the topmost priority along with reaching out to other cities in the state of Bihar to ensure clean air for all. The campaign will work towards empowering citizens and various key stakeholders through capacity building measures and increased monitoring efforts for data transparency for ensuring clean air in Bihar.”

The ‘Haqdari Hawa Ki’ campaign has got popular support from well-known people from Bihar, including ministers in government of Bihar and leaders of various parties such as Shri Dr Prem Kumar, Minister of Agriculture, Animal & Fisheries Resources; Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha, Minister of Water Resources; Shri Prem Chandra Mishra, Member of Legislative Council, Congress; Shri Shyam Rajak, Leader, Rastriya Janta Dal; and also endorsed by celebrities, social activists, eminent doctors, academics and notable citizens, e.g., Padma Shri Sudha Varghese, Padma Shri Usha Kiran Khan, Dr Diwakar Tejaswi, Shri Vinod Anupam and many others. The campaign will continue to seek support from eminent citizens to bring in much needed meaningful changes on the ground for breathable and cleaner environment in Bihar.