Karnataka among worst performing states in clean air programme spending; Bengaluru at bottom among cities

New Delhi: Karnataka is one of the three worst-performing states in spending the money allocated by the central government for air clean up, according to a new report from a green body, which also found Bengaluru as the worst performer among 25 cities when it comes to utilize the money provided under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Prepared by the Centre for Science and Environment, the report found that cities spent over 6 per cent of funds on road dust mitigation, leaving little money for controlling emissions from combustion sources such as industries, vehicles and biomass burning.

"We find that the NCAP’s attention and investments under it are largely focused on dust control, and not on emission-spewing combustion sources such as industries or vehicles,” said Sunita Narain, CSE director general.

Launched in 2019, the NCAP seeks to improve air quality in 131 large and medium-sized cities by providing them specific targets and releasing funds to meet them.

While 82 smaller towns get the money from the NCAP budget, 49 larger cities get the fund from the 15^th Finance Commission that also sets a few additional targets for the bigger cities. Over Rs 10,000 crore have been released in the last four years for the clean up.

Recent data shared by the Central Pollution Control Board for 25 cities shows Bengaluru and Nagpur spent just 13 per cent of the money they received in the last four fiscals. The list is topped by Lucknow, Hyderabad and Greater Mumbai that utilised 72 per cent of the fund.

Other Karnataka cities that are part of the national clear air programme are Davanagere, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad.

Despite four of its prominent cities receiving money to improve their air quality, Karnataka’s performance is dismal. It is one of the three worst spenders in both categories.

Among the Finance Commission’s grant recipients, it is the worst at 13 per cent utilization while among the NCAP cities, it is the third worst having been able to spend just about 31 per cent of the money received since 2019-20.

Data on 22 cities receiving funds under NACP shows Gulbarga with 27 per cent utilisation comes at the second last position followed only by Noida (7 per cent).

The environmentalists point out that the NCAP funding for 82 cities in the last four years was more than five times less than what was sanctioned by the Finance Commission for 49 cities.

Taken the two heads together, over Rs 10,566 crore has been released for 131 cities but just about Rs 6,806 crore (64%) has been spent, according to the CSE report that uses official data.

Out of all the money spent from the Finance Commission’s allocation, nearly 64 per cent utilisation has been in road dust mitigation. In comparison curbing of industrial pollution gets 0.61 per cent while reduction of vehicular pollution and biomass burning get 12.63 per cent and 14.51 per cent respectively.

“Cities are judged based on different metrics. There are serious questions about these metrics being used to benchmark progress and its implications for real improvement," noted Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, CSE.