Two-thirds of NCAP funds used for dust management, less than 1 pc for air pollution: Report

Nearly two-thirds of the funds allocated to 131 cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) have been used for dust management, while less than one per cent has been utilised to combat air pollution from the industrial sector, a new report revealed on Friday, 19 July.

Launched in 2019, the NCAP is India's first national effort to set clean air targets, aiming for a 20-30 per cent reduction in PM10 pollution by 2024, with 2017 as the base year. The revised target is a 40 per cent reduction by 2026, using 2019-20 as the base year.

The report, titled "National Clean Air Programme: An Agenda for Reform", by the independent think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), also said that only 64 per cent of the total funds given to the 131 cities have been spent so far.

“While NCAP’s objectives and aims have always been commendable, we are finding that attention and investments under it are largely focused on dust control, and not on emission-spewing combustion sources such as industries or vehicles. As much as 64 per cent of the funds utilized under NCAP and the 15th Finance Commission have been spent on road dust mitigation,” said CSE director general Sunita Narain.

According to the report, only 0.61 per cent of the total funds have been used to tackle industrial pollution, 12.63 per cent for vehicular pollution and 14.51 per cent for biomass burning.

Among the cities covered under NCAP, 82 receive direct funding from the Union environment ministry, while 42 cities and seven urban agglomerations with populations over a million get funding from the 15th finance commission.

The report detailed that only Rs 6,806 crore (64 per cent) of the total Rs 10,566 crore allocated to the 131 cities since the programme's inception has been utilised as of 3 May.

The 82 cities utilised Rs 831.42 crore of the total Rs 1,616.47 crore allocated, while the 49 cities receiving funding under the 15th finance commission utilised Rs 5,974.73 crore of the total Rs 8,951 crore allocated.

Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE's executive director, said that while dust control has become the focus of NCAP, PM2.5, a more harmful fraction of particulate pollution largely emitted from combustion sources, has been neglected.

Taking PM10 as the basis for assessing air quality improvement has diverted attention and investments toward dust control. Even though NCAP was originally planned to tackle both PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in non-attainment cities, in practice, only PM10 concentration has been considered for performance assessment, she said.

Roychowdhury said annual changes in PM10 levels can be significantly influenced by meteorological factors, dust storms, and heatwaves, rather than just policy actions. "This may not adequately reflect the impact of measures across all key sectors. PM10 monitoring needs to be source-specific."

Making PM2.5 improvement the benchmark to drive action is crucial, as PM2.5 is a more relevant health indicator for assessing air quality improvement, she said.