Minimal Or No Improvement In Air Pollution Levels In Last 3 Years: Report
NDTV
Delhi was the second most polluted city in the list of cities with the highest PM 2.5 level and fourth in cities with the highest PM 10 level.
Delhi and most of the other non-attainment cities under the National Clean Air Programme, or NCAP, launched exactly three years ago, have shown only a marginal improvement, said a new analysis released on Monday. Some of the cities have even recorded an increase in particulate matter (PM) levels, it said.
Cities are declared non-attainment if they consistently fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) over a five-year period.
The Centre's National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was implemented across India in 2019 to reduce particulate matter levels in 132 cities by 20-30 per cent in 2024.
The analysis by NCAP Tracker, a joint project by news portal 'Carbon Copy' and a Maharashtra-based start-up 'Respirer Living Sciences', designed to track India's progress in achieving the clean air targets, ranked Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh as the most polluted city out of the 132 non-attainment cities with highest levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 (particulate matter that is 10 microns or less in diameter).
