Swachh Vayu Survekshan Award, 2024:

Why in News? Recently, the union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change presented the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan award 2024 on the occasion of International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.

About Swachh Vayu Survekshan Award:

• It is an initiative by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to rank cities on the basis of implementation of activities approved under the city action plan and air quality in 130 NCAP cities.
• In September 2022, the MoEF&CC released guidelines on ‘Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan- Ranking of Cities’ under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
• The aim of launching Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan is to give a ranking to 130 cities in the country for implementing City Action Plans prepared as part of NCAP for reducing air pollution up to 40% by 2025-26.

Objectives:

• To create awareness among all sections of the society
• Inform citizens about the health impacts related due to exposure
• Comparing air quality conditions at different locations/cities
• To achieve the goal of NCAP “Clean air for all”.
• All 130 cities covered under NCAP are assessed based on information submitted under ranking framework by cities/ULBs on PRANA portal (dashboard to capture progress under NCAP programme).

Swachh Vayu Survekshan Awards 2024 were presented to the best performing NCAP cities under

Category-1 (population over 10 Lakhs) to Surat, Jabalpur, and Agra;

Category-2 (population between 3 and 10 Lakhs) to Firozabad, Amravati, and Jhansi; and

Category-3 (population under 3 Lakhs) to Raebareli, Nalgonda, and Nalagarh.