National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Why in news?

• The National Clean Air Plan (NCAP), which was launched in 2019 for improving air across 102 polluted cities, is likely to fail in delivering its objective, a new analysis by the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) has found. 

What is NCAP?

• The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is an initiative formulated by the Ministry of Environment to tackle increasing air pollution across the country in a comprehensive manner.

Objectives:

• To augment and evolve effective and proficient ambient air quality monitoring network across the country.
• To have efficient data dissemination and public outreach mechanism for timely measures for prevention and mitigation of air pollution.
• A tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP taking 2017 as the base year for the comparison.

Which cities will fall under this?

• 122 cities from across the country been chosen as non-attainment cities.
• With the exception of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, most of those chosen are tier two cities.

PRELIMS QUESTION

” Consider the following statements regarding National Clean air program:
1.It is primarily aimed at reducing the air pollution levels in Delhi.
2.It aims at 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question