Mumbai to see minimum temperature of 17 degrees Celsius; AQI remains moderate

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 31 degrees Celsius and 17 degrees Celsius respectively according to the India Meteorological Department IMDAs per the Sameer app Mumbairsquos Air Quality Index AQI on Sunday stands at 115 which falls under the moderate category This level of air pollution may cause breathing discomfort for people with lung conditions asthma or heart diseasesAQI across MumbaiBandra Kurla Complex 144Borivali East 132Byculla 95Andheri 138Chembur 105Colaba 99Deonar 128Ghatkopar 121Air quality a nationwide crisis govt response exceedingly ineffective CongressThe Congress on Sunday cited a report to claim that air quality in India is a nationwide structural crisis and that the governmentrsquos response has been ldquoexceedingly ineffective and inadequaterdquo The party demanded a thorough reform of the National Clean Air Programme NCAP according to the news agency PTICongress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said that the NCAP propagated as the National Clean Air Programme is actually another kind of NCAP mdash a ldquoNotional Clean Air ProgrammerdquoThe former environment minister said a new analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air CREA has confirmed what he described as Indiarsquos ldquoworstkept secretrdquo that air quality is a nationwide structural crisis for which the government response has been exceedingly ineffective and inadequate reported PTIUsing satellite data the study found that nearly 44 per cent of Indian cities mdash 1787 out of 4041 statutory towns assessed mdash suffer from chronic air pollution with annual PM25 levels consistently exceeding national standards over five years 2019ndash2024 excluding 2020 Ramesh said in a statementPointing out that the report also highlighted the ineffectiveness of the NCAP the Congress leader said that despite the scale of the problem involving 1787 towns only 130 cities are covered under the programmeOf these 130 cities 28 still lack continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations CAAQMS he claimedAmong the 102 cities with monitoring infrastructure 100 reported PM10 levels of 80 per cent or higher Ramesh said adding that in total the NCAP currently addresses only 4 per cent of Indiarsquos chronically polluted citiesReiterating his criticism Ramesh said the NCAP propagated as the National Clean Air Programme is in reality a ldquoNotional Clean Air Programmerdquo and asserted that it needs a thorough overhaul and reformldquoThe first step must be to acknowledge the public health crisis linked to air pollution across wide swathes of India Consequently we must revisit and completely revamp both the Air Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1981 and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards NAAQS put into effect in November 2009rdquo he said reported PTIRamesh urged the government to drastically increase funding under the NCAPldquoThe current budget inclusive of NCAP funding and the 15th Finance Commissionrsquos grants is about Rs 10500 crore spread across 131 cities Our cities need at least 10 to 20 times more funding NCAP must be made a Rs 25000 crore programme and expanded to cover the 1000 most polluted towns in the countryrdquo he saidHe further said the NCAP must adopt PM25 levels as the primary yardstick for performance and reorient its focus towards key emission sources such as the burning of solid fuels vehicular emissions and industrial pollutionldquoThe NCAP must be given legal backing an enforcement mechanism and serious datamonitoring capacity for every Indian city beyond the current focus only on lsquononattainmentrsquo citiesrdquo Ramesh arguedHe also asserted that air pollution norms for coalfired power plants must be enforced immediately and that all power plants must install flue gas desulphurisation FGD units by the end of 2026ldquoThe National Green Tribunalrsquos independence must be restored and the antipeople environmental law amendments of the last 10 years must be rolled backrdquo Ramesh saidldquoTwice in Parliament mdash first on July 29 2024 and then on December 9 2025 mdash the Modi government has attempted to downplay the health impact of air pollution The Modi government is not blind to the truth it is only attempting to cover up the scale of its incompetence and negligencerdquo he allegedWith PTI inputs