Article Title: Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan- Ranking of Cities
25-09-2022
Environment & Ecology Prelims Plus
Why is in news? Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan- Ranking of Cities under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)
Under the guidance of the Minister for Environment, Forest and climate Change, the Ministry is going to launch Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan.
That promotes ranking of 131 cities in the country for implementing City Action Plans prepared as part of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for reducing air pollution upto 40% by 2025-26.
131 cities are categorized into three groups based on population. 47 cities are in the first group having population more than 10 lakh. 44 cities are in the second group having population between 3 to 10 lakh. Third group consists of 40 cities having population less than 3 lakh.
This assessment is carried out annually.
Cities have to report implementation of activities and measures taken in respect of solid waste management, road dust management, management of construction and demolition waste, control of vehicular emissions and industrial pollution.
It was informed thatbased on the self-assessment and third party assessment, 3 best performing cities in each group will be given cash award in the spirit of competitive federalism.
This promotes constructive competition in the spirit of competitive federalism to take measures to improve air quality.
This Survekshan provides a tool to cities to plan their actions in order to improve the air quality.
It is not based on the measurement of the air quality parameters to rank the cities. It is based on the actions taken by the cities to improve the air quality in different domains. The actions taken by the cities would result in the improvement of air quality.
It thus, provides a planning implementation tool to improve the air quality and the assessment of the cities regarding how better they have aligned their actions to improve the air quality.
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