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India faces a severe air pollution crisis, yet allocated funds for pollution control remain largely unutilized. A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the environment ministry's inaction, which is exacerbating the already dire situation.
New Delhi: India's air pollution crisis has reached alarming levels, with a parliamentary panel sounding the alarm on the underutilization of funds allocated to tackle this issue. Despite allocating Rs 858 crore for pollution control in the 2024-25 financial year, a staggering 99% of these funds remain unutilized, with only Rs 7.22 crore spent as of January 31.
The primary objective of the 'Control of Pollution' scheme is to monitor air quality, implement pollution mitigation measures, and track water quality and noise levels. However, the environment ministry's failure to secure approval for the scheme's continuation has resulted in this gross underutilization of funds.
The parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forests, and climate change expressed shock and disappointment at this development, emphasizing that the ministry's inaction is exacerbating the already dire air pollution scenario. The committee urged the ministry to introspect and address the reasons behind this underutilization.
“At a time when the ministry is required to address the grave and critical challenge of deteriorating air quality, the ministry has not been able to decide the continuation of the concerned scheme, as a result of which not even 1% of the funds allocated for the scheme have been utilised so far,” the panel said.
In response, the ministry told the panel that the utilisation of majority of the funds in the scheme for the financial year 2024-25 could not be made till now as the approval for the continuation of the ‘Control of Pollution’ scheme till FY 2025-26 is being awaited.
India's air pollution scenario is indeed very grim, affecting the entire population and resulting in various health issues and ecological damage. The committee noted that while Delhi's air quality has been in the news, other cities in the country are also experiencing high air quality index levels.
The rising environmental pollution in the country not only results in a number of pollution-related human diseases and health conditions but also negatively impacts the ecology.
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