Lok Sabha Question No. 98 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-11-29
Subject: Air Pollution in Metropolitan Cities
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Gitaben Vajesingbhai Rathva, Ranjeetsingh Naik Nimbalkar, Deepak (Dev) Adhikari, Malook Nagar

98.

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 98 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.11.2021

Air Pollution in Metropolitan Cities

SHRIMATI RATHVA GITABEN VAJESINGBHAI:

SHRI RANJEETSINGH HINDURAO NAIK NIMBALKAR:

SHRI ADHIKARI DEEPAK (DEV):

SHRI MALOOK NAGAR

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

- (a) whether the  Government is aware that the  problem  of  air  pollution  in  metropolitan cities of the country has become worse, if so, the details of increasing pollution level in various metropolitan cities in the country especially in Delhi;
- (b) whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  the  causes  of  air  pollution,  if  so,  the  details thereof;
- (c) the problems being faced due to air pollution especially in Delhi;
- (d) the efforts made by the Government during the last three years to identify the causes and to reduce air pollution along with the details thereof;
- (e) the number of deaths due to air pollution during the last two years; and
- (f) whether  it  is  a  fact  that  India  suffers  loss  of  millions  of  dollars  every  year  due  to deteriorating public health due to air pollution and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) Ambient air quality data in 96 cities showed a decreasing trend of PM10 whereas36 cities showed an increasing trend of PM10 concentration in 2020-2021 as compared to 20192020.  18  cities  were  found  to  be  within  the  prescribed  National  Ambient  Air  Quality Standard (PM10 less than 60 µg/m3) in 2019-20 which has increased to 27 in year 2020-21. In  the  year  2020,  in  Delhi,  the  number  of  'Good',  'Satisfactory'  and  'Moderate'  days increased to 227 against 108 in 2016.

## (b) to (d)

A study 'Source Apportionment of PM2.5& PM10 of Delhi NCR for Identification of Major Sources' conducted by The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune, India;  and  The  Energy  and  Resources  Institute  (TERI),  New  Delhi  in  2018  reveals  that average  sectoral  contributions  in  PM2.5  and  PM10  concentration  in  Delhi  estimated  during winters and summers are as follows:

|                             | PM 2.5   | PM 2.5   | PM 10   | PM 10   |
|-----------------------------|----------|----------|---------|---------|
| Sectors                     | Winter   | Summer   | Winter  | Summer  |
| Residential                 | 10%      | 8%       | 9%      | 8%      |
| Agri. Burning               | 4%       | 7%       | 4%      | 7%      |
| Industry                    | 30%      | 22%      | 27%     | 22%     |
| Dust (Soil, road and cont.) | 17%      | 38%      | 25%     | 42%     |
| Transport                   | 28%      | 17%      | 24%     | 15%     |
| Others                      | 11%      | 8%       | 10%     | 7%      |

Further,  several  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  improve  the  air  quality  in  Delhi-NCR  is  at Annexure.

## (e) and (f)

There  is  no  conclusive  data  available  to  establish  a  direct  correlation  of  death/disease exclusively due to air pollution. Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases. Health is impacted by a number of factors which includes food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc. of the individuals apart from the environment.

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## Vehicular Emission

-  Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2020.
-  Network of metro rails for public transport are enhanced and more cities are covered.
-  Development of Expressway and Highways are also reducing the fuel consumption and pollution.
-  Eastern Peripheral Expressway & Western Peripheral Expressway have been operationalised to divert non destined traffic from Delhi.
-  All 10-year-old diesel vehicles are deregistered in Delhi NCR.
-  Environment protection charges (EPC) have been imposed on diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000cc and above in Delhi NCR.
-  Introduction of cleaner/alternate fuels like CNG, LPG, ethanol blending in petrol.
-  Faster  Adoption  and  Manufacturing  of  Electric  Vehicles  (FAME)  -2  scheme  has  been rolled out.
-  Permit requirement for electric vehicles has been exempted.
-  Promotion of public transport and improvements in roads and building of more bridges to ease congestion on roads.

## Industrial Emission

-  Stringent emission norms for Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPPs).
-  Ban on use of pet coke and furnace oil in NCR with restricted use of pet coke in cement plants, lime kilns and calcium carbide manufacturing units.
-  Shifting of industrial units to PNG.
-  Installation of online continuous  emission  monitoring  devices  in  highly  polluting industries.
-  Shifting of brick kilns to zig-zag technology for reduction of pollution

## Air Pollution due to dust and burning of waste

-  Notifications of 6 waste management rules covering solid waste, plastic waste, e-waste, bio-medical waste, C&D waste and hazardous waste.
-  Setting up infrastructure such as waste processing plants.
-  Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and e-waste management.
-  Ban on burning of biomass/garbage.

## Crop Residue Management

## ANNEXURE

-  Under Central  Sector  Scheme  on  'Promotion  of  Agricultural  Mechanization  for  in-situ management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi',  agricultural  machines  and  equipment  for  in-situ  crop  residue  management  are promoted with 50% subsidy to the individual farmers and 80% subsidy for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres.
-  Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) has been launched as an initiative to set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) production plants and make CBG available in the market for use in automotive fuels.

## Monitoring of Ambient Air Quality

-  Expansion of air quality monitoring network of manual as well as continuous monitoring stations under programmes such as National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP).
-  Initiation  of  pilot  projects  to  assess  alternate  ambient  monitoring  technologies  such  as low-cost sensors and satellite-based monitoring.
-  Implementation of Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow. The system provides alerts for taking timely actions.
-  Public Complaints regarding air pollution issues in Delhi NCR are taken through 'Sameer App', 'Emails'(Aircomplaints.cpcb@gov.in) and 'Social Media Networks' (Facebook and Twitter).

## Monitoring implementation of NCAP

-  Government  has  launched  National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP)  as  a  national  level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country. City Specific Clean Air Action Plans  have  been  prepared  and  rolled  out  forimplementation  in132  non-attainment  and million plus cities.
-  ₹ 375.44 crores have been sanctioned to non-attainment cities under NCAP for initiating actions  such  as  expansion  of  monitoring  network,  construction  and  demolition  waste management facilities, non-motorised transport infrastructure, green buffers, mechanical street sweepers, composting units etc.
-  As  per  the  Fifteenth  Finance  commission  recommendations  ₹4400  crores  have  been released in the Budget of FY 2020-21 to tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population. Further, an amount of ₹12,139 crores has been allocated for improvement of air quality for the award period FY 2021-26.
-  City  Specific  Action  Plans  for  improvement  of  air  quality  has  been  prepared  and approved for implementation.
-  Implementation of the city specific action plans are regularly monitored by Committees at Central and State level namely Steering Committee, Monitoring Committee  and Implementation Committee.
-  PRANA a portal for monitoring implementation of NCAP has been launched.

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