The Union Environment Ministry has told a parliamentary panel that there was no “discontinuity” in the implementation of the Control of Pollution scheme at ground level, and that funds unspent in the financial year 2024-25 will get carried forward. The Centre’s response was noted in the report of the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forest and climate change, tabled in Parliament Friday.
The ministry was responding to the panel’s observations and criticism made in its March report over expenditure of less than 1 per cent of the Rs 858 crore allocated for the scheme, till January 21, 2025. The ministry had previously informed the committee that the funds could not be utilised, as approval for the scheme’s continuation was still pending.
In response to the committee’s observations that fund utilisation during 2024-25 was unsatisfactory, the ministry said, “The utilisation of funds in FY 2024-25 declined mainly due to allocation of funds for the ‘Control of Pollution’ scheme in March 2025, by clubbing together of funds for FY 2024-25 and 2025-26. Cabinet approved an amount of Rs 1949.80 crore for FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 in March 2025, along with the direction that unutilised funds of FY 2024-25 will be carried over/ re-allocated to FY 2025-26.”
“The ministry will take all possible measures like advance planning, preparation and execution of proposals pertaining to ‘control of pollution’ scheme in a time-bound manner to utilise the budgetary allocation under the scheme,” the committee report noted.
The ministry explained that the control of pollution scheme involves providing gap funding support to 82 cities and also allows convergence with existing schemes and programmes. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is one of the components of the control of pollution scheme, and other components include providing support to pollution control boards, and monitoring air, water and noise pollution in the country.
“NCAP cities were continuously implementing their city action plans through funds provided under NCAP as well as through convergence of funds from Central and State Govt. schemes and projects included in their respective city action plans. There was no discontinuity in implementation of the scheme at ground level,” the report stated, recording the ministry’s response.
The ministry added that it has already sanctioned Rs 835.5 crore, out of which an amount of RS 209.64 crore has been released to states and union territories and 82 cities for implementing city action plans, as well as pollution control measures by North Eastern state pollution control boards.
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Under NCAP, the target is to reduce particulate matter 10 (pollutants smaller than 10 micrometre or less) in 130 cities by 2026. While the 15th Finance Commission funds NCAP for 49 cities with over a million people, 82 cities are funded under the Control of Pollution scheme.
In FY 2024-25, the report noted, cities have spent RS 419.35 crore to implement city action plans. The key activities undertaken across 82 cities under NCAP included end-to-end paving of roads covering 60 km in length, dust control on roads covering 700 km in length, mechanical sweeping of roads covering 550 km per day, development of 26 acres of green spaces and waste collection systems with a capacity of 12 tonnes/day.
“Out of 82 cities, 62 cities have shown improvement in air quality in terms of reduction in annual PM10 concentrations in FY 2024-25 with respect to the levels of FY 2017-18. Out of 82 cities, 19 cities have met National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 (60 μg/m3) in FY 2024-25,” the report stated.
