Delhi Air Pollution: CAG report exposes capital’s ‘failing’ Air Quality management: 10 key findings

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta tabled the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on vehicular Air pollution in Delhi in the Assembly on April 1.

The report titled “Performance Audit of ‘Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi’ for the year ended 31 March 2021” highlighted major policy gaps and weak enforcement and poor coordination among agencies as key reasons behind the worsening pollution scenario in the national capital.

The report flags issues like inaccuracies in data generated by Air Quality Monitoring System, shortage of public transport buses, inadequate emission tests, insignificant increase in Electric Vehicle (EV) registration and improper implementation of the Odd-Even rationing scheme for cars in the national capital, among other things.

Air pollution has been an issue in Delhi for long and the city records dip in air quality levels between November and January. With an average PM 2.5 concentration of 91.8 μg/m3, Delhi continued to be the most polluted Capital city in the world, according to the 2024 World Air Quality Report released early March.

Delhi’s air quality improved and remained in the ‘moderate’ category on March 31 morning after staying in the ‘poor’ category for the past few days. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 130 at 7 am on March 31, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), compared to 140 at the same time on Sunday.

Here are 10 key highlights from the report:

1-Inaccurate Air Quality Monitoring System Data

The report said the city's Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) do not meet the requirements set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), leading to concerns about inaccuracies in pollution control measures.

“The location of CAAQMS did not fulfil the requirements laid down by the CPCB indicating possible inaccuracies in the data generated by them, rendering the Air Quality Index values unreliable,” the 108-page report says.

It said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) did not have the required data on the concentration of pollutants in the air for a minimum of 16 hours in a day for proper air quality monitoring.

"The DPCC was also not measuring levels of Lead in Delhi’s ambient air. The GNCTD did not have any real-time information regarding sources of pollutants as it did not conduct any study in this regard,” the report said.

2-Inadequate Emission Tests

The report noted that more than 1.08 lakh vehicles were issued pollution under control (PUC) certificates despite emitting carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) beyond permissible limits. In many cases, multiple vehicles were issued certificates at the same time, sometimes within a minute of each other.

Public transport buses were not being subjected to emission tests twice a month as required under the directions of the National Green Tribunal.

The report said that between August 2015 and August 2020, as many as 4,007 diesel vehicles that exceeded pollution limits were still certified as compliant, allowing them to remain on the road despite their high emission levels.

During the same period, 22.14 lakh diesel vehicles were checked at Pollution Checking Centres (PCCs), but test values were not recorded for 24 per cent of the vehicles.

3-Bus Shortage

The CAG also observed that there was shortage of public transport buses with only 6,750 buses available against a re-assessed requirement of 9,000 buses. The public bus transport system also suffered from a significant number of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses remaining off-road, short coverage of bus routes and not rationalising bus routes, it read.

Out of the 14 CAG reports on the performance of the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation in Delhi, eight, including on excise and health, have been tabled in the Assembly so far by the BJP government, which assumed charge of Delhi after more than 26 years following a landslide victory in the Assembly polls held on February 5.

4- No Real-Time Studies

The report also criticised the previous Aam Aadmi Party government for failing to conduct real-time studies to identify the exact sources of pollution, a crucial step in formulating targeted solutions.

"Vehicles are one of the major local contributors to Delhi's poor air quality," the report said.

Out of the 47.51 lakh overage vehicles required to be deregistered from 2018-19 to 2020-21, the government deregistered only 2.98 lakh such vehicles, constituting a small fraction (6.27 per cent) of the end-of-life-vehicle (ELV), while a majority 93.73 per cent (44.53 lakh) of the ELVs had "active" registration status as of March 2021, the report said, indicating that these ELVs were still plying on Delhi roads.

None of the 347 impounded vehicles were scrapped by March 2021, and the capacity of impounding pits remains grossly inadequate with space for only 4,000 vehicles compared to over 41 lakh vehicles awaiting scrapping, it added.

5- Insignificant increase in EV registration

The report said that despite of providing financial and other incentives to encourage the adoption of Electric Vehicles, there was an insignificant increase in the number of Electric Vehicles registered in Delhi. Further, availability of charging facilities was also limited and not evenly distributed.

There was lack of concerted efforts by the Government to promote and facilitate non-motorised transport in Delhi.

6- Odd-Even scheme

The Graded Response Action Plan, consisting of Odd-Even Scheme and restricting entry of trucks into Delhi, aimed at bringing down pollution when high levels of pollution persist for extended periods, was not implemented by the Government on majority of occasions when the pollution levels were high, the report said.

The report also blameS the AAP government for failing to take steps to reduce air pollution by developing ISBTs at entry points of Delhi to keep inter-state diesel propelled buses at the periphery of Delhi, preventing Delhi becoming a trans-shipment zone for other states and shifting of Inland Container Depots to outside Delhi.

7- Parking Rules

The CAG report said that the government did not take any action to implement ‘Delhi Management and Parking Places Rules, 2019’ aimed at avoiding stagnation of vehicles and traffic congestion due to haphazardly parked vehicles. It also blamed the government for not not linking granting/renewal of transport permit to vehicles with availability of parking space as envisaged under the Rules.

8-Staff Crunch

The report said that the transport department's enforcement branch did not have sufficient staff or vehicles equipped with pollution-checking devices, making it difficult to monitor violations effectively.

Besides the shortage of staff, the enforcement teams did not have vehicles mounted with PUC equipment to check visibly polluting vehicles, resulting in inadequate coverage of the entry points to Delhi, indicating a weak enforcement regime, as per the report.

9 - No just crop burning

Delhi's pollution crisis was not just a result of external factors such as crop burning in the neighbouring states but is also fuelled by systemic failures in regulation and enforcement within the city itself.

The findings showed that while authorities have introduced measures to control pollution, poor enforcement and lack of coordination among agencies prevented meaningful progress, as per the report.

10 - Poor policy implementation

The report further highlighted the government's response and policy gaps, mentioning that multiple policies and action plans existed, but they lacked strict enforcement and interdepartmental coordination.

It also highlighted the need for better monitoring, stricter pollution control measures, and improved public awareness.

(With PTI inputs)