NEW DELHI: Amid the “very grim” air pollution scenario in the country, a parliamentary panel on Tuesday flagged that not even 1% of Rs 858 crore, allocated to the environment ministry for a central pollution control scheme, has been utilised at the fag end of the 2024-25 financial year.
The main objective of the scheme is to monitor air quality across India and take appropriate air pollution mitigation measures, besides monitoring water quality and noise levels in the country.
“The committee was surprised to observe that out of the 2024-25 allocation of Rs 858 crore (revised estimate) for ‘Control of Pollution’, only an amount of Rs 7.22 crore was spent upto January 31,” said the panel – parliamentary standing committee on science & technology, environment, forests and climate change – in its report tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday.
The ministry, however, 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 awaited.
It said, “Planning for disbursement and utilisation of the funds are already in place and will be executed as soon as approval is received.”
The panel headed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Bhubaneswar Kalita, however, doesn’t appear to be convinced of the reason behind underutilisation of the fund, and asked the ministry to introspect and take a serious note of the reasons for this “gross underutilisation”.
The panel even expressed its shock that the amount (Rs 858 crore), which is more than 27% of the annual allocation of the ministry, remained unutilised since the approval for continuation of the scheme till 2025-26, was awaited, “even at the fag end of the financial year”.
Underlining that the scenario of air pollution in the country is indeed very grim and has been affecting one and all, the panel said, “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 also noted that though Delhi has been in the news because of its “ever-deteriorating air quality”, other cities in the country are also not far behind and are experiencing high ‘air quality index’ (AQI) levels.
It said, “The rising environmental pollution in the country not only results in a number of pollution related human diseases and health conditions but negatively impacts our ecology too.”