Nueva Delhi: in the midst of the “very bleak” air pollution scenario in the country, a parliamentary panel marked Tuesday that not even 1% of RS 858 million rupees, assigned to the Ministry of Environment For a central pollution control scheme, FAG end of the financial year 2024-25 has been used.
The main objective of the scheme is to monitor air quality throughout India and take appropriate measures to mitigate air pollution, in addition to monitoring water quality and noise levels in the country.
“The committee was surprised to observe that from the 2024-25 allocation of RS 858 million rupees (revised estimate) for” pollution control “, only a number of RS 7.22 million rupees was spent until January 31,” said the Panel – Parliamentary Committee of Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, in its report presented in Parliament on Tuesday.
However, the Ministry told the panel that the use of most funds in the 2024-25 financial year could not be done so far, since the approval of the continuation of the “Control Control” scheme is expected until fiscal year 2025-26.
He said: “Disbursement planning and the use of funds are already in force and will be executed as soon as approval is received.”
However, the panel headed by BJP member Rajya Sabha, Bhubaneswar Kalita, does not seem to be convinced of the reason behind the underutilization of the background, and asked the ministry to introspecate and take a serious note of the reasons for this “disgusting garbage.”
The panel even expressed its shock that the quantity (RS 858 million rupees), which is more than 27% of the annual assignment of the Ministry, remained unused from the approval of the continuation of the scheme until 2025-26, was expected, “even at the end of the financial year.”
Underline that the scenario of air pollution in the country is very gloomy and has been affecting everyone, the panel said: “At a time when the Ministry must address the serious and critical challenge of deteriorating the air quality, the ministry has not been able to decide the continuation of the scheme in question, as a result of which not even 1% of the funds assigned for the scheme have used so far.”
The panel also pointed out that, although Delhi has been in the news due to its “increasing air quality”, other cities in the country are not far away and are experiencing high levels of “air quality index” (AQI).
He said: “The growing environmental pollution in the country not only results in a series of human diseases and health -related health conditions, but also negatively affect our ecology.”
