The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday alleged the BJP-led Centre has failed to check pollution in many cities in the country despite spending Rs 6,897 crore on its National Clean Air Programme. NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto said the Centre’s aim of a 40 per cent reduction in particulate matter by 2026 “sounds good only on paper”.

He said this seems an impossible target to achieve going by the current situation. “Reports say the central government in 4yrs has spent Rs 6,897 Cr of public money for its ‘National Clean Air Programme’, then why is the public still choking and suffering due to Air Pollution?

“Air quality in the country except for a very few places is going from bad to worse,” he tweeted. The NCP spokesperson further said, “If the BJP-led Central government has really spent so much money on cleaning the air then they must explain to people about only a marginal improvement in air pollution in only in a few places. They have failed to stop many cities from choking”.