Green bodies and experts Thursday welcomed the government's National Clean Air Plan to tackle pollution, calling for its "serious" implementation.
Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan Thursday launched the NCAP to improve air quality in 102 cities by 20 to 30 per cent in the next five years with 2017 as the base year.
These cities did not meet the annual PM 2.5 and PM 10 national standard from 2011 to 2015.
"It is good to see the final version of the NCAP out after a long wait with the vision of reducing air pollution levels across the country. The silver lining in the plan is the potential reduction of 20 - 30 per cent by 2024," Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace India, Sunil Dahiya, said.
He also mentioned that there should be strong legal backing to take action against non-implementation of the plan.
"We hoped it would be much stronger in providing sector-wise targets, targets for cities.We hope the ministry shows more seriousness in implementing the plan and strengthening it here onwards" Dahiya said.
Sachidanand Tripathi, professor and head Centre for Environmental Science and Civil Engineering, IIT-Kanpur said "The NCAP is a highly ambitious initiative when implemented in a timely fashion can make our cities, towns breathable and skies blue again."
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