National Clean Air Program: Key Features, Challenges

A five-year National Clean Air Programme plan was launched by the [Indian] Government in January 2019 with set targets to decrease PM2.5 and PM10 by 20-30 per cent with 2017 as the base year.

Where is it being enacted? 

The government has included 102 Non-Attainment Cities (NAC) as centers of focus for the NCAP. However, the question is that just increasing the scope of application will be of any help? Kirk R. Smith, Director of Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre, says, “Getting the system boundaries right is extremely important for effective control. Monitoring and management need to be done in regions close to nature’s boundaries as air pollution pays no attention to political boundaries, e.g. cities.” This actually makes concrete sense because air pollution is not peculiar to cities, mostly it comes from the villages nearby. Smith says, “The US, Europe, and recently, China have recognized this issue, but not yet India.” So, if that be the case then are those cities chosen in NAC could not be helped or should the government have chosen differently or widely even? Smith replies, “There is a need to establish air quality control districts. For focusing on the NCR region 85 per cent of air pollution is controlled but for others, it does not make sense.”

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