The amount allocated this year is less than the revised estimate of the spend under this head, in this financial year.
In its ‘outlay for major schemes,’ the annual budget lists schemes with an outlay of more than Rs 1,000 crore. Under ‘Control of Pollution’, it emerges that Rs 1300 crore is the revised estimate of spend this financial year. But this year, less than the revised estimates has been allocated, only Rs 1091 crore. Only Rs 854 crore was allocated for this last year.
Last year, in 2024-25, the actual spend under this head was a paltry Rs 16 crore.
Pollution has been a major deterrent to people’s lives and also livelihoods. Gita Gopinath at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, she said that air pollution was a far bigger threat to India’s economy than any tariff imposed by the United States on the country. India needs to work on tackling air pollution on “war footing”, she said.
Leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi has called for a parliamentary debate on pollution and “real resources” behind it. He said, “Pollution is no longer just an environmental issue, it is a national health emergency. Parliament must discuss it. The government must act. And this Budget must put real resources behind real solutions. Indians are not asking for reports or rhetoric. They are asking for clean air.”
India could make upto $220 billion by 2030 , and only by handling air pollution, according to a new report, The Business Case for Clean Air: Unlocking Economic Opportunities for India, by global consulting firm Dalberg Advisors and the Clean Air Fund. This report looks at pollution as a new economic opportunity. It concludes that effective action could also save India $85 billion in business losses. Being able to eliminate fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution levels by about 20 per cent, could mean that India avoids “10 million disability-adjusted life years every year.”
The word pollution also did not find mention in Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech.
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