- The Centre has launched a programme to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024.
- The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which was formally unveiled, is envisaged as a scheme to provide the States and the Centre with a framework to combat air pollution.
- The ₹300-crore programme will bring pollution concerns to the heart of a State’s development plans. “The NCAP will be a mid-term, five-year action plan, with 2019 as the first year.
- For achieving the NCAP targets, the cities will have to calculate the reduction in pollution, keeping 2017’s average annual PM levels as the base year.
- The World Health Organisation’s database on air pollution over the years has listed Tier I and Tier II Indian cities as some of the most polluted places in the world. In 2018, 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India. A study in the journal Lancet ranked India as No.1 on premature mortality and deaths from air pollution.
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National Clean Air Programme that aims to improve the air quality in 102 Indian cities including four in Karnataka – Bengaluru, Davangere, Kalaburagi and Hubballi-Dharwad – in the next five years.
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The target is to reduce the concentration of PM-2.5 and PM-10 (particulate matter of 2.5 and 10 microns sizes respectively) by 20-30% from the 2017 level.
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Of the 102 cities where the programme would be implemented, as many as 43 are those chosen for the government's Smart City programme.