Lok Sabha Question No. 444 (STARRED), answered on 2022-04-04
Subject: Commission on Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh, Feroze Varun Gandhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION No. 444 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.04.2022

## Commission on Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas

## *444.  SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

## SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether any discussions were held by the Commission on Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) in concurrence with the appropriate stakeholders to mitigate  the  impact  of  pollution  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  themeasures discussed and adopted ; and
- (b) whether the use of Cloud Seeding as an alternative means to mitigate air pollution was a part of discussion and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether there are only 804 air quality monitors in the entire country and if so, the details thereof  along  with  the  urban-  rural  distribution  of  the  existing  monitors  including  the details of the current air quality monitor density;
- (d) whether  the  current  air  quality  monitor  density  is  adequate  as  per  World  Health Organisation and other international standards; and
- (e) whether the Government has taken efforts to expand air quality monitoring, especially in rural areas and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BHUPENDER YADAV)

- (a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARAS (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  444  DUE  FOR  REPLY  ON  04.04.2022  REGARDING 'COMMISSION  ON  AIR  QUALITY  MANAGEMENT  IN  NCR  AND  ADJOINING AREAS'  RAISED  BY  SHRI  PARVESH  SAHIB  SINGH  VERMA  &  SHRI  FEROZE VARUN GANDHI, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## (a) & (b)

The  Commission  on  Air  Quality  Management  in  NCR  and  Adjoining  Areas  (CAQM)has adopted  a  participative  &  collaborativeapproach  towards  dealing  with  the  issues  of  Air pollution  in  the  region.  In  this  direction,  pursuant  to  the  Hon'ble  Supreme  Court  Order  in W.P. (C) No. 1135/2020 "Aditya Dubey & Anr. V/s Union of Indio &Ors." the Commission invited  suggestions  from  stakeholdersincluding  general  public  for  medium  and  long  term solutions  for  prevention  and  controlof  air  pollution  in  the  NCR.  A  good  number  of  multisectoral  issues  and  suggestions  relatedto  control  of  Air  pollution  have  been  received  from different  stakeholders  &  generalpublic.  An  Expert  Committee  constituted  to  examine  the suggestions, has been interactingwith stakeholders/experts on a regular basis for adoption of measures for control of airpollution in the region.

In order to further deliberate upon the various factors impacting the air quality in the entire NCR,  an  'Interactive  Dialogue  towards  Clean  Air'  was  organized  by  the  Commission  and MoEF&CC in collaboration with other stakeholders of NCR on 7 th and 8 th March, 2022 at Gurugram, Haryana. Apart from representatives of the CentralGovernment, Government of NCR states / NCT Delhi and Government of Punjab,Members of Parliaments, representatives of  the  CPCB,  State  Pollution  Control  Boards  /  DPCC,  DMs  /  DCs,  and  Municipal Corporations  /  Municipalities  of  the  NCR,  IndustryAssociations,  NGOs  and  Academia  / Experts attended and actively participated in thedialogue. The topics of discussion included:-

- (i) City Specific Action Plans
- (ii) Urban  Solid  Waste  Management  &  Addressing  legacy  waste  of  Sanitary  Landfill sites
- (iii) Management of Dust from Construction and Demolition activities
- (iv) Management of Dust from Road sides and Open Areas
- (v) Shifting of Industries and Transport to  PNG/cleaner  fuels-  Expanding  PNG Networkand Supply
- (vi) E-Mobility - Potential solution for addressing Vehicular Pollution
- (vii) Ways to reduce emissions from Transport Sector
- (viii) Control of Emissions from Diesel Generator Sets
- (ix) Sustainable Agriculture Stubble Management includes transforming Waste Biomass into  marketable  products  and  Ex-situ  Utilisation  of  Agricultural  Stubble  incoal basedThermal Power Plants
- (x) In-situ management of Agricultural Stubble through bio-decomposers
- (xi) Greening and Plantation Programme

Cloud Seeding as an alternative means to mitigate air pollution was not part of the discussion.

## (c) & (d)

There are 1213ambient air quality monitoring stations operating across the country covering 465  cities  in  28  States  and  7  Union  Territories.  Out  of  these,  880  stations  aremanual monitoring  stations  and  covers378  cities/towns.  333  Continuous  Ambient  Air  Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS)measuring real time air quality cover 172 cities/towns in 23 States and 4 Union Territories across the country. The details of current ambient air quality monitoring stations are given as Annexure-I .

26  monitoring  stations  are  located  in  rural  areas.The  State  and  District-wise  ambient  air quality monitoring stations in the rural areas is given in Annexure-II .

The ambient air quality monitoring stations in the country are established as per the guidelines of CPCB. The siting of air quality monitoring stations are population based and the criteria include available resources and site specific parameters such as size of the area to be covered, variability  in  pollutants concentration etc. The criteria for designing the ambient air quality monitoring network is given as Annexure-III .

## (e)

Air  Quality  Monitoring  network  of  manual  as  well  as  continuous  monitoring  stations  is expanded continuously under various programmes with the objective of deploying a sustained and robust monitoring system in the country.

The efforts taken by Government to strengthen air quality monitoring system in the country inter alia include:

- (i) 17 stations have been sanctioned for rural areas in 2021-22.
- (ii) National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP)  in  2019  as  a  national-level  strategy  to reduce air pollution levels in urban centres;
- (iii) Initiation of pilot projects to assess alternate ambient monitoring technologies such as low-cost sensors and satellite-based monitoring;
- (iv) Implementation  of  Air  Quality  Early  Warning  System  for  Delhi,  Kanpur  and Lucknow. The system provides alerts for taking timely actions;
- (v) ₹ 6705 Crores has been released during 2019-22 to 132 non-attainmentand million plus populationcities for tackling the problem of air pollution by implementation of City specific Action Plans (CAPs). These CAPs also include the establishment of air quality monitoring stations for developing the robust monitoring network.

## ANNEXURE-I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (c) & (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 444 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 04.04.2022 REGARDING 'COMMISSION  ON  AIR  QUALITY  MANAGEMENT  IN  NCR  AND  ADJOINING AREAS' RAISED BY SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA & SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

Ambient air quality stations (manual & real-time stations)

| Sl.       | States &UTs                              | Number of stations   | Number of stations   |
|-----------|------------------------------------------|----------------------|----------------------|
| No.       |                                          | CAAQMS               | NAMP                 |
| 1.        | Andaman &Nicobar (UT)                    | 0                    | 2                    |
| 2.        | Andhra Pradesh                           | 6                    | 72                   |
| 3.        | Arunachal Pradesh                        | 1                    | 2                    |
| 4.        | Assam                                    | 2                    | 31                   |
| 5.        | Bihar                                    | 32                   | 8                    |
| 6.        | Chandigarh (UT)                          | 2                    | 5                    |
| 7.        | Chattisgarh                              | 2                    | 17                   |
| 8.        | Dadara& Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu (UT) | 0                    | 6                    |
| 9.        | Delhi (UT)                               | 40                   | 10                   |
| 10.       | Goa                                      | 0                    | 18                   |
| 11.       | Gujarat                                  | 15                   | 24                   |
| 12.       | Haryana                                  | 30                   | 5                    |
| 13.       | Himachal Pradesh                         | 0                    | 25                   |
| 14.       | Jammu &Kashmir (UT)                      | 1                    | 29                   |
| 15.       | Jharkhand                                | 1                    | 10                   |
| 16.       | Karnataka                                | 31                   | 30                   |
| 17.       | Kerala                                   | 9                    | 29                   |
| 18.       | Lakshadweep (UT)                         | 0                    | 1                    |
| 19.       | Madhya Pradesh                           | 16                   | 42                   |
| 20.       | Maharashtra                              | 41                   | 80                   |
| 21.       | Manipur                                  | 0                    | 1                    |
| 22.       | Meghalaya                                | 1                    | 10                   |
| 23.       | Mizoram                                  | 1                    | 19                   |
| 24.       | Nagaland                                 | 1                    | 9                    |
| 25.       | Odisha                                   | 2                    | 38                   |
| 26.       | Pondicherry (UT)                         | 1                    | 6                    |
| 27.       | Punjab                                   | 8                    | 47                   |
| 28.       | Rajasthan                                | 10                   | 39                   |
| 29.       | Sikkim                                   | 0                    | 9                    |
| 30.       | Tamilnadu                                | 11                   | 55                   |
| 31.       | Telangana                                | 6                    | 25                   |
| 32.       | Tripura                                  | 1                    | 2                    |
| 33.       | Uttar Pradesh                            | 48                   | 84                   |
| 34.       | Uttarakhand                              | 0                    | 8                    |
| 35.       | West Bengal                              | 14                   | 82                   |
| 28 states | &7UTs                                    | 333                  | 880                  |

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)&  (d)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  444  DUE  FOR  ANSWER  ON  04.04.2022  REGARDING 'COMMISSION  ON  AIR  QUALITY  MANAGEMENT  IN  NCR  AND  ADJOINING AREAS'  RAISED  BY  SHRI  PARVESH  SAHIB  SINGH  VERMA  &  SHRI  FEROZE VARUN GANDHI, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## State and District-wise ambient air quality monitoring stations in the rural areas during 2020

## (Manual monitoring)

|   Sl. No. | State                              |   Sl. No. | Village                       | District                              |
|-----------|------------------------------------|-----------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|         1 | Dadra &Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu |         1 | Baldevi (Dadra &Nagar Haveli) | Dadara& Nagar Haveli                  |
|         1 | Dadra &Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu |         2 | Patlara (Daman)               | Daman                                 |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         3 | Aligarh (Jagraon)             | Ludhiana                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         4 | AspalKhurd (Tapa)             | Barnala                               |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         5 | Bara Pind (Goraya)            | Jalandhar                             |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         6 | Binjon (Garshankar)           | Hoshiarpur                            |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         7 | Bishanpura (Payal)            | Ludhiana                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         8 | Changal (Sangrur)             | Sangrur                               |
|         2 | Punjab                             |         9 | Chowkimann (Jagraon)          | Ludhiana                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        10 | Fatehpur (Samana)             | Patiala                               |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        11 | Guru Ki Dhab (Kotkapura)      | Faridkot                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        12 | JaitoSarja (Batala)           | Gurdaspur                             |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        13 | Kharaori (Sirhind)            | Fatehgarh Sahib                       |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        14 | Kotladoom (Ajnala)            | Amritsar                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        15 | LakhokeBehram (Ferozpur)      | Ferozpur                              |
|         2 | Punjab                             |        16 | MrarKalan (Muktsar)           | Muktsar                               |
|         3 |                                    |        17 | Mukandpur (Nawashahar)        | Nawashahar / ShahidBhagat Singh Nagar |
|         3 |                                    |        18 | Mureedke (Batala)             | Gurdaspur                             |

| Sl. No.   | State   |   Sl. No. | Village                   | District   |
|-----------|---------|-----------|---------------------------|------------|
|           |         |        19 | Naudhrani (Malerkotla)    | Sangrur    |
|           |         |        20 | Peer Mohammad (Jalalabad) | Fazilka    |
|           |         |        21 | Poohli (Bhatinda)         | Bathinda   |
|           |         |        22 | QilaBharian (Sangrur)     | Sangrur    |
|           |         |        23 | Rakhra (Patiala)          | Patiala    |
|           |         |        24 | Rohila (Samrala)          | Ludhiana   |
|           |         |        25 | Tirathpur (Amritsar-I)    | Amritsar   |

## ANNEXURE-III

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (c) & (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 444 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 04.04.2022 REGARDING 'COMMISSION  ON  AIR  QUALITY  MANAGEMENT  IN  NCR  AND  ADJOINING AREAS' RAISED BY SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA & SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI, HON'BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

## Criteria for designing the ambient air quality monitoring network

| Population (Census 2011)   | Minimum No. of manual station underNAMP                                                        | Minimum no of proposed CAAQMS                                         |   Total |
|----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|
| 1,00,000- < 5,00,000       | 1-Background 2-Residential/ Commercial                                                         | 1-Residential                                                         |       4 |
| 5,00,000- <10,00,000       | 1-Background 2-Residential/ Commercial                                                         | 1-Residential 1-Traffic dominant area 1- Commercial                   |       6 |
| 10,00,000- <50,00,000      | 1-Background 2-Residential/ Commercial                                                         | 2-Residential 1-Traffic dominant area 1- Commercial 1-Industrial area |       8 |
| ≥50,00,000                 | 1-Background in upwind direction 1-Background in down wind direction 2-Residential/ Commercial | 4-Residential 3-Traffic dominant area 3- Commercial 2-Industrial area |      16 |