NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav said on Saturday that it is time to make the "Clean Air For All" initiative a participatory mission.
The Minister said that efforts to enhance air quality had resulted in improved air quality in cities around the country. "However, if we want to achieve our goals, we need a 'Jan Bhagidari,' or participatory governance," he stated. On Saturday, Yadav was in Chennai to launch the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and the XV-FC Million Plus Cities Challenge Fund (XV-FC MPCCF) for the southern region, which includes Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, Daman and Diu, and Dadar and Nagar Haveli.
Yadav praised Tamil Nadu on the occasion, stating that the air quality in Chennai, Madurai, and Trichy, which have a population of over 3 million people, meets the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. He also praised the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board's e-commute scheme, under which all of the board's officials commute to work every Wednesday using non-fossil fuel vehicles.
"India's adoption of the BS-VI standard and associated fuel and vehicle norms represents a watershed policy decision in the fight against air pollution," Yadav added. "Based on air quality data from 2014 to 2018, 132 non-attainment cities have been recognised across the country under NCAP." He noted that the list contains a diverse mix of cities of various sizes and sorts, with 13 from Andhra Pradesh and four each from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana in southern India.
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