In the UT Apex Committee meeting of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today took stock of all the measures taken to improve the overall quality of air in the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar here. The meeting was attended by ACS, Forest Department; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir/Jammu; PCCF; Secretary Transport; Commissioner SMC/JMC besides other concerned officers.
During this meeting the Chief Secretary impressed upon the concerned city administrations to take all the measures to improve the air quality in our cities as envisaged under this national programme. He asked them to show more commitment toward this significant matter and ensure that the targets set for the two cities are met without fail.
Dulloo further took note of the expenditure made till date under this national programme and the works carried out to make quality of air better here. He stressed on making strenuous efforts to complete all the ongoing works within this financial year. He also directed for accelerating the pace of tendering and other preliminary processes to execute other projects taken up under this programme.
The Chief Secretary maintained that the clean air is one of the basic parameters of determining quality lifestyle in urban areas. He observed that the measures like enhancing of green spaces, reduction of pollutants by resorting to eco-friendly ways are going to have a great impact on our health and prosperity.
He called for coordinated efforts to implement this programme here in letter and spirit. It was given out by the ACS, Forests, Dheeraj Gupta that the National Clean Air Programme is a comprehensive time bound action programme launched by MoEFCC, Govt of India in January 2019 with an objective to improve air Quality especially for Non-attainment Cities.
He said that a baseline has been given for each identified city and Target set to be achieved for the concerned city administration to improve the air quality there. He further made out that 124 NACs(132 NACs as on now) have been identified in country for the coverage in this program on the basis of non-conforming to National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 5consecutive years.
The meeting was also apprised that funds to the tune of Rs 94.60 Cr have been received by the Municipal bodies of twin cities for making meaningful intervention in this regard. It was said that 19 Air Quality Monitoring-Manual Air Quality Monitoring Stations have been set up in Jammu and Srinagar for providing the real time updates.
Moreover the data for the air quality of 19 different parameters monitored by the CAAQMS installed at Rajbagh Srinagar is displayed on the screen for information of the general public. Similarly, Air Quality of 10 locations of Jammu City is being monitored and displayed through towers installed under Jammu Smart City Project at main chowks of Jammu city for information of general public.
In addition the State Action Plan has been submitted to CPCB by Government of J&K, which stands approved by the CPCB. This approved Action Plan has details of all the major actions / activities required to be undertaken, departments responsible for its implementation, besides setting timelines for implementation of each of them, the meeting was informed.