Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Friday, August 24, 2018.
Greenpeace members said the RTI reply shows the immediate need for Maharashtra to step up its efforts for combating air pollution under NCAP. |
Ten cities in
Maharashtra are not prepared to tackle air pollution even eight months after
the Centre directed states to draw up an action plan. Action plans prepared by
cities such as Mumbai and Pune have been asked to revise their blueprints.
Officials
from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) told HT that Maharashtra tops
the list of cities that have failed to develop action plans followed by Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
A right to
information response from CPCB to non-governmental organisation Greenpeace
India has revealed 17 highly polluted cities in Maharashtra are not ready with
action plans to tackle air pollution. While 10 cities are yet to submit their
action plans, seven cities have been asked to revise and resubmit their plans,
the RTI response said.
“Cities such
as Mumbai, Pune, Amravati, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Jalna and Latur have been
requested to revise their action plans; resubmit it to their state government
and CPCB,” CPCB’s RTI response read. CPCB officials said they had not set any
deadline for developing action plans but expected all state pollution control
boards (SPCBs) to finalise them by June; latest by August. “We had 51 action
plans in January, 71 by June and more than 80 so far. We have asked SPCBs to
finalise these plans in consultation with state governments, which is why it is
taking more time,” said A Sudhakar, member secretary, CPCB.
The Centre
promulgated the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to push for clean air
across the country and identified 100 most polluted (non-attainment) cities in
March this year, which was later updated to 102 cities. According to CPCB, 80
cities across India have developed their air pollution action plan while the
remaining 22 are yet to submit their drafts.
Greenpeace
members said the RTI reply shows the immediate need for Maharashtra to step up
its efforts for combating air pollution under NCAP. “Lack of even one
implementable action plan raises grave concerns towards the government’s
preparedness to mitigate air pollution crisis and fight the health emergency
Maharashtra faces due to hazardous air pollution levels,” said Sunil Dahiya,
senior campaigner, Greenpeace India, which filed the RTI query in July and
received CPCB’s response on August 20.
MPCB
officials said all action plans will be ready and submitted by next month. “The
CPCB wanted us to develop integrated air pollution source apportionment plan,
which we developed after consultations with stakeholders and guidance from
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and IIT-B for all 17
cities, which took some time. CPCB has also circulated a template for air
quality improvement across five parameters, which has been completed by 70% of
the cities. Some smaller municipal corporations have issues but within a month
it will be complete,” said P Anbalagan, member secretary, MPCB.