Emphasizing the need to translate the outcome of the deliberations, in the form of suggestions on the ground, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma has said that the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is expected to play a crucial role in addressing the increasing air pollution across the country in a comprehensive manner. Inaugurating the two-day Stakeholder Consultation on NCAP here today, Dr. Sharma emphasised the impact of air pollution on health and general well-being of human, floral and faunal population. He said that stakeholders are and must act as “givers” to the society.Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri C.K Mishra said, “While as a nation, we need to be concerned at the quality of air, as a Government we need to have that commitment to ensure that there is a defined time-frame that we may set for ourselves after today’s discussions”. He added that all the states and stakeholders need to spread the campaign for clean air across the country. The Secretary pointed out that technology is one of the critical elements of NCAP. “Let us together find solutions that are nationally acceptable, but more importantly, which are locally possible”, Shri Mishra stated.
The Stakeholder Consultation involves all the State Governments, considering that NCAP is a pan-India programme and inputs from states will be useful in evolving an effective implementation strategy. The overall objective of the NCAP is comprehensive management plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country. The NCAP focuses on collaborative and participatory approach covering all sources of pollution and coordination between relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, local bodies and other stakeholders.The focus is on intensive awareness, training and capacity-building drive, with specific impetus on augmentation of manpower and infrastructure facilities of CPCB and SPCB under the capacity building component of NCAP. Separate components with emphasis on three tier mechanism for review of monitoring, assessment and inspection for effective implementation under NCAP. A credible, transparent and accountable data collection and monitoring system that is available for timely swift action is to be ensured.Since air pollution mitigation necessitates collaborative.