Environmentalists have demanded accountability from the Ministry of Environment after a recent parliamentary committee report in the Parliament revealed that only 1 percent of the Rs 858 crore allocated to the ministry for its ‘Control of Pollution’ scheme was utilised this financial year.
The central government aims to reduce pollution by 40 percent in 130 cities by 2025-26 under its flagship National Clean Air Programme, which majorly relies on the Control of Pollution scheme for funding. With the underutilisation of the scheme’s funds, experts argue that the government has not kept pace with tackling air pollution as environmental laws are diluted to favour industries. Therefore, experts said policy frameworks, even well-intentioned, will falter for want of effective implementation.
The report by the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change was tabled in Parliament on March 25. The report shows that of the Rs 858 crore allocation, only Rs 7.22 crore was spent in 2024-25 (until January 31). Before the current fiscal, the Control of Pollution scheme funds were either fully utilised or over-spent. In 2022-23, 100 percent utilisation of Rs 600 crore was reported. The next year, almost all of the allocated funds (Rs 847 crore) was spent.
“The underutilisation of pollution control funds clearly highlights that policy frameworks, no matter how well-intentioned, are of no use without effective implementation.We have seen stark contrasts across the globe between countries that act decisively on environmental concerns and those that falter due to bureaucratic delays,” said Bhavreen Khandari, co-founder of Warrior Moms, a network of mothers demanding clean air for their children.
Newslaundry reached out to NCAP Director Prashant Gargava for comment but didn’t get a response.
The parliamentary report suggests that the union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change lacks accountability, said Dharmesh Shah, a Kerala-based environment policy expert.
“The ministry should proactively share this information on the reasons for underspending, which shows a larger malaise with environmental governance. The accountability mechanism in environmental governance has completely collapsed,” said Shah.
He also observed that although the government, with its focus on ease of doing business, has acknowledged the pollution problem, it is yet to walk the talk on clean air.
“The government is focusing on ease of doing business by diluting environmental laws. On the other hand, it is yet to take action to solve the pollution problem even though it acknowledges it. There is no credible action to show that mitigation measures are being implemented,” said Shah.
Manoj Kumar, analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, explained reasons for under-spending. “Not enough manpower and lack of coordination between the Centre, state, and local bodies are major reasons for implementation challenges and under-utilisation of funds.”
According to him, fund stalling occurs due to the requirement of achieving 75 percent fund utilisation. “Cities must submit a utilisation certificate to NCAP, and if fund utilisation is below 75 percent, funds are not released in the following financial year,” he said.
He said most cities are also falling behind in conducting source-apportionment studies that identify sources of pollution and extent of their contribution. “NCAP cities need to go beyond pollution mitigation measures. So far, only about 50 out of 130 cities have conducted source-apportionment studies. Without these studies, how can cities accurately identify pollution sources and plan effective interventions?” Kumar said.
Khandari said India needs to learn from China, which was once notorious for its heavy air pollution and aggressively tackled the crisis through strict emission controls, investment in clean energy, and rapid execution of policy measures. “As a result, Beijing’s air quality has improved significantly over the past decade, with PM2.5 levels dropping by more than 50 percent between 2013 and 2021,” said Khandari.
In contrast, NCAP has suffered from slow implementation, lack of interdepartmental coordination, shortage of staff and underutilisation of funds, she said, and added, “For example, in 2021-22, less than 40 percent of the funds allocated under NCAP were actually disbursed to states.”.
The committee, headed by BJP MP Bhubaneswar Kalita with 30 other MPs as its members, expressed its “shock” for under-utilisation.
“The Committee is shocked to note that amount to the tune of Rs 858 crore allocated for ‘Control of Pollution’, which is 27.44 percent of the annual RE [revised estimate] allocation of the Ministry, remains unutilised since the approval for continuation of Control of Pollution Scheme till 2025-26, is awaited, even at the fag-end of the financial year,” read the report.
It recommends that the ministry introspect and take a serious note of the reasons for “this gross underutilisation”.
According to a meeting held in December last year, states have given varied reasons for poor utilisation of funds. Assam has argued that it was because of imposition of the model code of conduct and prevailing flood situation. Uttar Pradesh said it was because of delays in the tendering process, and promised to utilise funds in the next “three-four” months. Karnataka promised to increase utilisation after the “tendering process is completed”. Meghalaya blamed it on delay in data compilation from other departments. Telangana assured that fund utilisation would increase from “the next week”.
The Central Pollution Control Board, which is implementing NCAP, pulled up cities for poor performance in fund utilisation.
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