New Delhi, Jan 11 : The Congress on Sunday accused the government of attempts to downplay the air pollution's impact on health, claiming that it is trying to cover up the scale of its "incompetence" and "negligence" on the issue.

Jairam Ramesh, MP, General Secretary (Communications), All India Congress Committee, flagged the impact of air pollution on health by citing a new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and called for reform by taking the first step of acknowledging the public health crisis linked to air pollution.

He also called for giving legal backing to the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and equipping the apex air pollution agency with an enforcement mechanism and serious data monitoring capacity for every Indian city, beyond the current focus only on "non-attainment" cities.

The National Green Tribunal's independence must be restored, and the anti-people environmental law amendments of the last 10 years must be rolled back, he said.

"A new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has now confirmed what was always India's worst-kept secret â?? that the air quality is a nation-wide, structural crisis for which the Government response is exceedingly ineffective and inadequate," he said in a statement on Sunday.

He said, "Twice so far in Parliament â?? first on 29th July 2024 and then on 9th December 2025 â?? the government has tried to downplay the health impact of air pollution. The government is not blind to the truth; it is only attempting to cover up the scale of its incompetence and negligence."

The Congress leader said the CREA study, using satellite data, "... found that nearly 44 per cent of Indian cities - that is 1,787 out of 4,041 statutory towns assessed - have chronic air pollution, with annual PM2.5 levels consistently exceeding the national standard over five years (2019â??2024, excluding 2020)".

The former Union Environment Minister said that the report also highlighted the ineffectiveness of the NCAP.

"Despite the scale of the problem (1,787 towns), only 130 cities are covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Of these 130 cities, 28 still lack continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS). Among the 102 cities with monitoring infrastructure, 100 reported PM10 levels of 80 per cent or higher. In totality, NCAP currently addresses only 4 per cent of Indiaâ??s chronically polluted cities," he said.

"NCAP propagated as the National Clear Air Programme is actually another type of NCAPâ??Notional Clear Air Programme," he said.

Suggesting remedial steps, Ramesh said, "We must revisit and totally revamp both the Air Pollution (Control and Prevention) Act of 1981 and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) put into effect in November 2009."

"As per the NAAQS, the permissible concentration of fine particulate matter is 60 µg/m3 for 24 hours, and 40 µg/m3 annually â?? versus the guidelines of less than 15 µg/m3 for 24 hours and 5 µg/m3 annually set by the WHO," he said.

He said the government must drastically increase the funds made available under the NCAP. "The current budget, inclusive of NCAP funding and the 15th Finance Commission's grants, is about Rs 10,500 crore, spread across 131 cities! Our cities need at least 10-20 times more funding - NCAP must be made a Rs 25,000 crore programme and spread across the 1,000 most polluted towns in the country," he said.

The NCAP must adopt measurement of PM 2.5 levels as the yardstick for performance and reorient its focus to key sources of emissions â?? burning of solid fuels, vehicular emissions, and industrial emissions, he said.

Ramesh said that we must revisit and totally revamp both the Air Pollution (Control and Prevention) Act of 1981 and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) put into effect in November 2009.

/IANS