The State Government and Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) have taken a formidable initiative for preparing clean air action plan for eight cities including Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Hazaribagh, Ramgarh, Chaibasa, Dumka, Sahibganj and Pakur, which do not fall under the non-attainment cities notified in the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), said JSPCB Chairman, Priyesh Kumar Verma on Friday.

Verma was addressing a State level workshop organised by JSPCB and Center for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) titled ‘Towards Clean Air for Jharkhand’ for various stakeholders ranging from State Government agencies, departments, private players and think-tanks, civil society organisations and citizen groups for attaining the overall objective of clear and breathable air in Jharkhand. The aim of this discussion was to engage and build plausible solutions to address the rising air pollution in various cities of Jharkhand and forge concrete cooperation between different stakeholders and further identify priority areas for optimising the air quality in the region.

The Chairman of JSPCB further said that it marks a new beginning in controlling the rising air pollution in smaller cities and ensuring better air quality amidst the concern of health crisis deepening there. “The proactive action taken by JSPCB to develop a clean air action plan for these 8 cities will go a long way in preparing the action measures to avoid these cities even reaching the non-attainment level. The State government is committed to ensuring cleaner and healthy air for all people through stringent mitigation measures and constructive steps for addressing the rising air pollution,” he added.

Praising the initiative taken by JSPCB,  CEO of CEED, Ramapati Kumar said that, “Jharkhand has become the first state in taking a big leap in moving towards for preparing clean air action plan for those cities which are still not part of the non-attainment cities and this also affirms the belief that air pollution is not necessary linked to the big cities and brings much needed spotlights on various smaller two and three tier cities witnessing deteriorating air quality and calling for urgent attention there.”

Currently most of the cities in Jharkhand are witnessing unprecedented air quality and worrisome public health status. The National Ambient Air Quality Database shows high levels of air pollution in cities where air quality monitoring is operational and it is far above the safe limits forcing citizens to breathe unhealthy air. To keep a tab on air pollution, the NCAP was launched in January 2019 by the Government of India, which aims to reduce PM 2.5 and PM10 levels by 20-30 percent by 2024 from 2017 levels. Among the 122 cities falling under the non-attainment cities, only Dhanbad from Jharkhand was enlisted there and various cities of the state were left out of the purview of NCAP, who are on the verge of witnessing high levels of air pollution. In Jharkhand, the city air action plan of Dhanbad has been prepared so far.