No pollution-reduction targets in Central plan

No pollution-reduction targets in Central plan

What has happened?

In a strange move that is unlikely to impress anyone concerned over the worsening air quality in our cities, the government has refrained from specifying pollution-reduction targets in its draft National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Key points

• The draft NCAP will be open to public comments until May 17
• It envisions setting up 1,000 manual air-quality-monitoring stations (a 45% increase from the present number) and 268 automatic stations (triple the current 84). It also, for the first time, plans to set up pollution-monitoring stations in rural areas
• The NCAP follows from the Environment Ministry’s submissions to the Supreme Court on March 8, 2018.