Congress calls for total revamp of Air Pollution Act and air quality standards as Delhi air falls into ‘severe plus’ category

‘Severe plus’ category is a stage which all emergency measures, including a ban on polluting trucks, commercial four-wheelers, and all types of construction, are mandated to be initiated and enforced

Students wearing anti-pollution masks cross a road amid hazy weather conditions, in New Delhi, on November 3, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI

Expressing concern over rising air pollution in the country, the Congress on Friday called for a total revamp of the Air Pollution Act and air quality standards to make them more stringent and effective.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who is a former Union Environment Minister, took to the social media platform, X, to make the demand amid the national capital region (NCR) of Delhi battles severe air pollution levels.

On Friday, Delhi’s air quality fell into the “severe plus” category, a stage at which all emergency measures, including a ban on polluting trucks, commercial four-wheelers, and all types of construction, are mandated to be initiated and enforced in the NCR.

Mr. Ramesh said The Air Pollution (Control and Prevention) Act came into being in 1981. Thereafter, ambient air quality standards were announced in April 1994 and later revised in October 1998, he noted.

In November 2009, a more stringent and wide-ranging National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) was put into effect after a thorough review by IIT-Kanpur and other institutions. This covered 12 pollutants considered very detrimental to public health, he said, while sharing the 2009 press note that explained the reasoning behind the significant shift to implement NAAQS then.

“It is now time for a revisit and a total revamp of both the Act and the NAAQS. Over the past decade and more, compelling evidence has accumulated on the impacts of air pollution on public health,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He added that in January 2014, an expert steering committee on “Air Pollution and Health Related Issues” was set up and its report was submitted in August 2015.

“Since then the weaknesses in our enforcement machinery of both the law and the standards along with the emasculation of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have become painfully evident. The National Clean Air Programme is chugging along without having any marked impacts. Air pollution hits the headlines mostly in November when the nation’s capital chokes. But it is a daily agony across the country all around the year,” Mr. Ramesh said.