Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2023 Rankings
Recently the awards of ‘Clean Air Survey 2023’ were announced by the ‘Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan (SVS)
- It is a new initiative by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to rank cities on the basis of air quality and implementation of approved activities under the City Action Plan (NCAP) in 131 non-attainment cities.
- The classification of cities has been done on the basis of 2011 population census.
Key points of Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2023
- Under the first category (million plus population), Indore stood first, followed by Agra and Thane.
- Worst performers: Madurai (46), Howrah (45) and Jamshedpur (44).
- In the second category (3-10 lakh population), Amravati got the first position, followed by Moradabad and Guntur at the third position.
- Worst performers: Jammu (38), Guwahati (37) and Jalandhar (36).
- Similarly, for the third category (population less than 3 lakh), Parwanoo secured the first position. After this Kalaamb and Angul secured second position.
- Worst performer: Kohima (39).
International Day of Clean Air for Blue Sky
- All these awards have been given on the occasion of the fourth “International Day of Clean Air for Blue Sky”. This year the theme of this day was- “Together for Clean Air”
- Every year, on 7 September, the world celebrates “International Day of Clean Air for blue skies” to raise awareness and facilitate actions to improve air quality.
- It was declared by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the year 2019.
National Clean Air Program (NCAP)
- The National Clean Air Program (NCAP) aims to systematically address air pollution by involving all stakeholders and ensuring necessary actions.
- Under this programme, 131 cities have been identified for implementation of city specific action plans.
- This is the first attempt in the country to create a national framework for air quality management with a time-bound reduction target.
- It aims to reduce the concentrations of coarse (PM10) and fine particles (PM2.5) by at least 20% over the next five years (base year for comparison – 2017).
- Under NCAP, the Ministry has also launched a portal ‘PRANA’ to monitor the implementation of NCAP.
- The action plans of cities, states and line ministries will be reflected in this portal and monitored for the status of their implementation.
Source – PIB
