Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: INDORE, Amravati and Dewas on Tuesday emerged as top performers in curbing air pollution under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan-2023.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said in Bhopal that several cities have achieved significant progress despite being industrial hubs or having coal mines.
He said that from next year, wards within cities will also be assessed for their air pollution control efforts, and released guidelines for this. Cities were put in three categories on the basis of their population for the purpose of the survey.
In million-plus population category, Indore in Madhya Pradesh ranked first as the city with cleanest air, followed by Agra (Uttar Pradesh) and Thane (Maharashtra), Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Howrah (West Bengal) and Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) were the bottom three cities ranked 46, 45 and 44, respectively. Delhi was ranked ninth while Bhopal secured the fifth position.
In the second category (for cities with 300,000 to 1 million population), Amravati (Maharashtra) secured first rank followed by Moradabad (UP) and Guntur (Andhra Pradesh), while Jammu, Guwahati (Assam) and Jalandhar (Punjab) were the bottom three cities ranked 38, 37 and 36, respectively.