Cash award on Nalagarh & Sundernagar town for improving pollution ranking :MOEFCC 

Union Ministery of Forest, Environment and Climate change conferred cash award of Rs. 25.00 lakhs and 12.50 lakhs to Nalagarh and Sundernagar for significantly improving air quality and improving polution ranking.

Mr. Apoorv Devgan (IAS) Member Secretary, Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control 

Board stated in a press statement issued here today that the problem to tackle beforehand was higher concentration of PM10 in the ambient environment which has led to categorization of these cities/towns under the category of Non- Attainment. The State has adopted multi-pronged strategy by involving all stakeholder Departments 

and prepared Action Plan for mitigation of air pollution in all Non-Attainment Cities or Towns NAC/T(s) of the State. The State Board has upgraded the air monitoring capability in all the NAC/T. He said that Sundernagar and Nalagarh towns of the State achieved  second and third rank respectively at national level. Prof. Ganeshi Lal,  Governor of Odisha and Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister of Environment and Forest  today confired cash award in International Conference Vayu held at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Dr Manoj Chauhan, Chief Scientific Officer of HPSPCB. Four years ago a survey conducted by MOFECC inwhich seven town of States including both towns figured among 49 most polluted town for poor airquality . After the survey MoEF&CC launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2018 for containment of air quality in 131 Non-Attainment Cities or Towns. The   air quality improved by after periodic review of implementation of Action Plan by the Air Quality Monitoring Committee (AQMC) headed by Addl. Chief Secretary (Env. Science & Technology) to 

the GoHP and HPSPCB . Polution of both city were monitored after implementation 

committee headed by the respective District Magistrates have succeeded in reduction of more than  40 per cent PM10 concentration in the ambient environment. Improvement in air quality in the State is not limited to NAC/T(s) but overall Air Quality 

Index (AQI) of the State has also improved from 81 during the base year 2017 to 61 during 2021-22,  which is attributed to effective enforcement of pollution control and environmental laws by the State 

Board across the State. All seven towns of the State would come out of categorization under  NAC/T(s) for which continuous and persisted efforts shall have to be maintained by all stakeholder  Departments, member secretary added.