Environment Ministry to undertake major reforms to improve air quality in urban areas

On Monday, the 15th Finance Commission headed by N. K. Singh and including its members and senior officials held a detailed meeting with the Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar, senior officers on issues relating to Air Quality (AQ) especially that in the urban areas.

Javadekar states pre-requisite for ambient AQ

During the meeting, Javadekar said his ministry was coming up with the rules for implementation of construction and demolition waste control so as to control dust, a major source of pollution in cities. He opined that strict implementation of pollution and emission laws with harsh punishment and penalties to the defaulters is the pre-requisite for ambient air quality.

The minister also informed that with the launching National AQ Index in 2015, the country has reliable data of AQ with respect to 42 million-plus cities from 2017 onwards. 

An official press release stated that the XVFC Report 2020-2021 was the first time that any Commission has given attention to air quality (AQ) as a major focus and this FC had not only recommended grants for 2020-21 and also provided a road map for its award period.

The objective of the meeting was to discuss the status of the implementation of the Finance Commission recommendations for 2020-21 for administering the grants to improve air quality in million-plus cities. The Finance Commission, in its report for the Financial Year 2020-2021, had recommended grants of Rs 4,400 crore for 2020-21 to improve the ambient air quality in fifty million-plus cities and Urban Agglomerations (UAs).

For this, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Challenge has been entrusted with the responsibility to facilitate the desired outcomes through these urban local bodies.

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According to the press release, the Commission was given the following information: 

• Regarding reliable data on AQ measurement, it was explained that there is a network of around 984 stations covering a wide range of cities and towns, around 779 manual stations and 205 continuous monitoring stations in around 500 cities which were set up under the National Control of Air Pollution (NACP) to meet its objectives. Although a network of AQI monitoring stations is in place, there is a need for strengthening and expanding these along with the geographical area to cover the air-shed areas in order to make it more robust and accurate. 
• The Ministry has begun this work earlier as part of the roll-out of NACP and various think-tanks like IITs, IIMs and NITs have been made local partners for different cities/towns. Ministry will also seek their expert guidance on what the Commission needs to consider for the five years from 2021.
• As the problem of AQ is mostly not a localized phenomenon and is influenced by many factors beyond the control of a particular region, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is now focusing on the air-shed management approach.
• Construction & Demolition Waste Management was a priority of the Government and that the Government would seek the support of the Commission for the same.

Basic structural change in sources of air quality

Javadekar added that there would be a basic structural change in sources of air quality in the next few years and particularly in larger cities of the country due to the new regime to emission norms which would lead to an estimated reduction of 30 to 40 per cent in vehicular emission.

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He also briefed about various reforms that are being taken up by the Ministry at a break-neck speed and stated that the time delays in approval of application/licenses were drastically brought down from earlier 640 days to 108 days now. Further, this period will be brought down to 50 days within the next six months. As regards ease of doing business, the Ministry is coming up with an amendment to the notification of environment impact assessment. 

The Commission unilaterally appreciated the Ministry’s effort in building up capacity to monitor Air Quality. The Commission also stressed on the need for controlling agricultural pollution.

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