Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav lauded Tamil Nadu for keeping the air quality in the 3-million-plus cities of Chennai, Madurai and Tiruchi within the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
On Saturday, he inaugurated the two-day sensitisation-cum- review workshop–National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and XV-FC Million Plus Cities Challenge Fund for the southern region. The region comprises Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The workshop held in Chennai is organised by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Mr. Yadav also praised the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for the initiative of e-commute, under which all the officials of the Board commute to office every Wednesday through non-fossil fuel-driven vehicles. He pointed out that India leapfrogged to the BS-VI standards and the adoption of the norms for fuel and vehicles was one of the landmark policy decisions towards combating air pollution.
“Under NCAP, 132 non-attainment cities have been identified across the country, based on the air quality data from 2014 to 2018. The list is a heterogeneous mix of cities of all sizes and types and in southern India, we have 13 such cities from Andhra Pradesh and 4 each from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana,” Mr. Yadav said.
“It’s time to make ‘Clean Air For All’ a participative mission,” he said, stressing that participative governance held the key.
Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey; Tamil Nadu Minister for Environment Siva. V. Meyyanathan; Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Leena Nandan; Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forest, Government of Tamil Nadu; and Naresh Pal Gangwar, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, took part at the inaugural ceremony.
