{"id":53820,"date":"2019-11-07T17:24:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T11:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=53820"},"modified":"2019-11-07T17:24:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T11:54:34","slug":"answered-with-rising-pollution-levels-in-indian-cities-india-needs-a-clean-air-act-and-an-autonomous-new-body-to-enforce-it-comment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-with-rising-pollution-levels-in-indian-cities-india-needs-a-clean-air-act-and-an-autonomous-new-body-to-enforce-it-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cWith rising pollution levels in Indian cities, India needs a Clean Air Act and an autonomous new body to enforce it.\u201d Comment."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction. <\/strong>Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>Discuss rising air pollution and failure of laws and organisations. Also discuss the need of clean air act and an organisation to implement it.
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

With every winter there is news of elevated pollution levels in the national capital. The problem of pollution disrupts not only the NCR area but many other prominent urban areas like Allahabad and Ludhiana which figure above Delhi in the pollution ranking across the world. Many organisations and act are there to prevent air pollution in India which unfortunately have proved ineffective to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air\npollution Scenario in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. According\nto WHO, of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, the top 14 are Indian\ncities. These include Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Delhi, etc.<\/li>
  2. The\nEnvironmental Performance Index (released by World Economic Forum) ranked India\n178th out of 180 countries in terms of air quality.<\/li>
  3. According\nto Central Pollution Control Board data, 11 most polluted cities in country are\nfrom Uttar Pradesh. Ghaziabad is the most polluted city in the country followed\nby Gurugram.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Failure\nof Indian laws and organisations:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Currently,\nthere are many different organisations trying to combat air pollution with no\ntop organisation to guide them all to achieve defined goals. NCAP, EPCA, CPCB\nand MoEF and SPCBs and many other organisations failed miserably in preventing\nair pollution.<\/li>
    2. EPCA, The\nEnvironment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority was constituted in\n1986. The Supreme Court-mandated EPCA is tasked with monitoring and implementing\nthe court\u2019s judgments on air pollution. EPCA has failed in its mandate and\nDelhi has become one of the world\u2019s most polluted cities. EPCA\u2019s mandate\nextends only to Delhi-NCR. <\/li>
    3. Air\npollution is a national problem. Central government\u2019s National Clean Air\nProgramme or NCAP, focuses only on 10 cities. It is difficult to stop stubble\nburning in Punjab and Haryana by focusing on 10 cities. As it fails in resolving\ninter-city and inter-state issues.<\/li>
    4. There is\nalso a Supreme Court-mandated mechanism called Graded Action Response Plan\n(GRAP). It is similar to China\u2019s graded plan which came into force whenever\npollution was expected to go and thus was a preventive mechanism. Unfortunately\nGRAP\u2019s measures come into force when air pollution levels are already crossed\nacceptable thresholds. Further, GRAP is only for Delhi-NCR. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Need\nfor a comprehensive clean air act and organisation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. As we\nsaw failure of various initiatives and organisations to act against air\npollution in India, it is thus important to have a clean air act on the lines\nof USA\u2019s clean air act and an autonomous body like Environment Protection\nAgency (EPA) of USA to enforce it. The US once had the sort of air pollution\nhaze that we now see in India. But it\u2019s gone in the US, due to the EPA and the\nClean Air Act. <\/li>
      2. The\nClean Air Act and EPA has its impact had resulted in a cleaner environment for\nNew York City. In addition, the act has become the major force, in revamping\nNew York City\u2019s transportation system and a key consideration in any new\nland\u2010use planning. India need a similar kind of initiative.<\/li>
      3. Recently,\nChina has succeeded in significantly bringing down its air pollution levels. It\nhas done so by overhauling its environmental laws with provisions similar to\nthe US\u2019 Clean Air Act.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        What\nshould be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. An\norganisation on the lines of EPA should be established which powerful and its chairman\nmust be given a cabinet-rank status in the government. <\/li>
        2. If a\nstate in the refuses to comply with the EPA\u2019s minimum standards, the EPA should\nbe able to take over the environment administration of that state by law.\nLesser powers must include stopping funds to the state. For the most part, EPA must\nwork with state governments to make implementation plans. <\/li>
        3. A new\norganisation should help in removing issues among states and cities by\nenforcing clean air law pan-India.<\/li>
        4. It should\nfurther help in enforcing the laws beforehand before developing of a dangerous\nsituation to live in.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Thus, it is important to replace India\u2019s outdated and weak Air Act and to create a powerful autonomous national body. In the absence of a powerful and autonomous central implementing body, India will continue to grope in the smog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. Discuss rising air pollution and failure of laws and organisations. Also discuss the need of clean air act and an organisation to implement it. Conclusion. Way forward. With every winter there is news of elevated pollution levels in the national capital. The problem of pollution disrupts not… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cWith rising pollution levels in Indian cities, India needs a Clean Air Act and an autonomous new body to enforce it.\u201d Comment.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53820","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}