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A parliamentary standing committee on Tuesday said it was shocked that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had utilised less than 1% of Rs 858 crore allocated to a scheme aimed at controlling pollution in 2024-’25.
The Control of Pollution scheme, which has been operational since 2018, aims to monitor air quality across the country and take appropriate mitigation measures, besides monitoring water quality and noise levels.
In its Demands for Grants (2025-’26) report submitted to Parliament, the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change urged the ministry to “introspect” and seriously look into why only Rs 7.22 crore had been utilised till January 21 for the scheme.
Department-related standing committees examine the spending and performance of different ministries keeping in mind their budget allocations and submit reports to Parliament.
“The committee is shocked to note that amount to the tune of Rs 858 crore allocated for ‘Control of Pollution’, which is 27.44 percent of the annual RE (revised estimate) allocation of the ministry, remains unutilised since the approval for continuation of Control of Pollution Scheme till 2025-26 is, awaited, even at the fag end of the financial year,” the report said.
The committee said that air, water and noise pollution had gone beyond permissible limits in the last few years and had serious consequences for public health and well-being. Air pollution has assumed “gigantic proportions” and has become a national issue, it added.
“At a time when the Ministry is required to address the grave and critical challenge of deteriorating air quality, the Ministry has not been able to decide the continuation of the concerned scheme, as a result of which not even 1% of the funds allocated for the scheme have been utilized so far,” the report said.
In response to the concerns, unidentified ministry officials told The Indian Express that the funds could not be used because approval for continuing the scheme was awaited. The officials noted that as per the report, the ministry had spent all of the budget allocated for the scheme in the previous two years.
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