Context:

• In a strange move that is unlikely to impress anyone concerned over the worsening air quality in our cities, the government has refrained from specifying pollution-reduction targets in its draft National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Draft National Clean Air Programme:

• the programme would aim to reduce pollution in specific cities by “50% in five years.”
• The NCAP was conceived as a detailed strategy to ensure that cities across the country meet specified air quality norms.
• The draft NCAP will be open to public comments until May 17.
• It envisions setting up 1,000 manual air-quality-monitoring stations (a 45% increase from the present number) and 268 automatic stations (triple the current 84).
• It also, for the first time, plans to set up pollution-monitoring stations in rural areas.
• The NCAP follows from the Environment Ministry’s submissions to the Supreme Court on March 8, 2018.
• In a strange move that is unlikely to impress anyone concerned over the worsening air quality in our cities, the government has refrained from specifying pollution-reduction targets in its draft National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
• This is despite the fact that Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier said the programme would aim to reduce pollution in specific cities by “50% in five years.”
• The NCAP was conceived as a detailed strategy to ensure that cities across the country meet specified air quality norms.

Source:TH