Representative image NEW DELHI: Amid the “very grim” air pollution scenario in the country, a parliamentary panel on Tuesday flagged that not even 1% of Rs 858 crore, allocated to the environment ministry for a central pollution control scheme, has been utilised at the fag end of the 2024-25 financial year. The main objective of the scheme is to monitor air quality across India and take appropriate air pollution mitigation measures, besides monitoring water quality and noise levels in the country. “The committee was surprised to observe that out of the 2024-25 allocation of Rs 858 crore (revised estimate) for ‘Control of Pollution’, only an amount of Rs 7.
22 crore was spent upto January 31,” said the panel - parliamentary standing committee on science & technology, environment, forests and climate change - in its report tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday. The ministry, however, told the panel that the utilisation of majority of the funds in the scheme for the financial year 2024-25 could not be made till now as the approval for the continuation of the ‘Control of Pollution’ scheme till FY 2025-26 is awaited. It said, “Planning for disbursement and utilisation of the funds are already in place and will be executed as soon as approval is received.
” The panel headed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Bhubaneswar Kalita, however, doesn’t appear to be convinced of the reason behind underutilisation of the fund, and asked the ministry to introspect and take a serious .
