An amount of Rs 7.95 crore has been released from 2019 till 2023 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for Byrnihat town under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
This was revealed in the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change before the principal bench of National Green Tribunal in New Delhi recently.
Out of the Rs 7.95 crore released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in these five years, an amount of Rs 3.17 crore has been utilised for various activities to reduce air pollution in Byrnihat.
It may be mentioned that Byrnihat is among the 131 cities and towns in the country covered under the NCAP.
In the affidavit filed by the ministry, it was stated that Meghalaya has filed its report detailing air quality improvement measures taken for Byrnihat which is funded under NCAP.
“The city (Byrnihat) has undertaken activities such as end-to-end pavement of roads, water sprinkling measures, greening of urban spaces, monitoring of fuel adulteration in petrol pumps, and creation of public awareness,” the affidavit said.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the particulate pollution level in Byrnihat has shown some improvement.
In 2017-2018 (base year), the average PM10 concentration in Byrnihat was 175. In 2023-24, the average PM10 concentration is 104. As such the improvement in PM10 concentration with respect to base year (2017-18) is 41 per cent.
India launched the NCAP in 2019 with a target to reduce particulate pollution by 20-30 per cent by 2024, using 2017 as the base year.
The target was later revised to a 40 per cent reduction by 2026, using 2019-20 as the base year.
In September this year, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said that 21 cities and urban agglomerations have achieved more than 40 per cent reduction in PM10 pollution. These include Byrnihat, Kohima, Sivasagar, Varanasi, Dhanbad, Bareilly, Firozabad, Dehradun, Tuticorin, Nalagarh, Moradabad, Khurja, Trichy, Lucknow, Kanpur, Kadapa, Sunder Nagar, Agra, Greater Mumbai, Rishikesh and Parwanoo.
