Mumbai gets Rs244 crore from Centre to fight air pollution

The Centre allocated ₹396.5 crore to Maharashtra, the biggest share from a total of ₹2,200 crore to all states, to improve the air quality in its cities, under the

The Centre allocated ₹396.5 crore to Maharashtra, the biggest share from a total of ₹2,200 crore to all states, to improve the air quality in its cities, under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as per the recommendations by the 15th finance commission. Of the amo-unt allocated to Maharashtra, ₹244 crore will be for Mumbai.

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The Union finance ministry released the funds for 42 urban agglomerations in 15 states as the first instalment of the programme. Mumbai received the biggest share among cities, followed by Kolkata (₹192 crore), Bengaluru (₹139.5 crore) and Chennai (₹90 crore).

Maharashtra has six cities — Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune — featured in the list. Pune got ₹67 crore, Nagpur ₹33 crore, Nashik ₹20.5 crore, while Vasai-Virar and Aurangabad received ₹16 crore each. The state government has been directed to release the funds to the civic bodies within 10 working days.

“The funds are expected to be utilised for the capacity-building of local bodies and meeting needs of the state pollution control board to achieve the goal of maintaining ambient air quality within the jurisdiction of the cities,” a letter tweeted by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Leader of opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, against the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between the state and Central government, tweeted about the highest allotment to the state.

A November 2 communication from the Finance Commission Division to the accounts officer at the Chief Controller of Accounts in the department of expenditure, ministry of finance, details the allocation.

The 2020-21 report of the finance commission had recommended the grant of ₹4,400 crore to NCAP. The programme, launched in January last year, aims to reduce by 20-30%, the PM 2.5 (respirable, pollution particles) concentrations in over a hundred cities compared to 2017 levels.

Meanwhile, according to officials from the environment department, “We are also expecting guidelines from the Central government along with the funds. The cities selected are with a high level of pollution and we call them ‘atonement cities’ which need more focus. We have been implementing measures to arrest the pollution from industrial and vehicular transmission, which are the biggest contributors. The efforts will definitely get a boost by the central funds.”

The local bodies in the list shall entrust one urban local body as a nodal entity to receive the grants. This nodal entity shall also have the responsibility of achieving the performance indicators for the entire urban agglomeration, the ministry’s statement said.

(with inputs from Jayashree Nandi)