Overview
- Congress leader Jairam Ramesh urged an immediate review and tighter enforcement of the 2009 air-quality norms, calling for the NCAP to pivot squarely to PM2.5.
- An analysis of CPCB continuous monitors by CREA found that from Oct 1, 2025 to Feb 2026 none of 238 cities met WHO PM2.5 guidance and 204 exceeded India’s own limits.
- Only 12 of 96 NCAP cities complied with the national PM2.5 standard, with over Rs 13,400 crore released since inception and 68% reportedly spent on road-dust management as the programme benchmarks PM10.
- The Environment Ministry has told Parliament that pollution deaths cannot be conclusively established, while ICMR backed Lancet findings for 12.4 lakh deaths in 2017 and the 2025 Lancet Countdown estimated about 17.2 lakh deaths annually.
- CREA flagged data gaps that hinder oversight, noting 50 cities with under 80% continuous data availability, some stations logging no data on certain days, and persistent hotspots across the NCR and several states.