Only 14% of ₹113 Crore Clean Air Funds Spent While Residents Gasp for Breath
Delhi has utilised only 14% of the funds so far — Rs 14.1 crore of Rs 99.77 crore — released under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) since 2019 even as the neighbouring cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), such as Ghaziabad and Meerut, have spent more than 80% of their funds. This city wise data was provided by Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Monday. The disclosure came a day after the Union Budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with an allocation of Rs 1,091 crore under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s “Control of Pollution” scheme for 2026-27. Notably, the budget allocation under one scheme does not represent the entirety of pollution-related funding in Delhi-NCR, which is spread across multiple programmes and institutions. What is NCAP?Launched in January 2019, the NCAP is the Centre’s framework for improving air quality in 130 cities. It sets city-specific targets for reducing particulate matter pollution, with an overall goal of …

