India’s cities may be battling high toxicity in the air, but the
national pollution watchdog doesn’t seem to be putting up enough of a fight.A
government audit shows the Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) did not
install monitoring stations on time despite having the budget for two major air
quality management programmes that could have helped the states fight rising
air pollution more aggressively. The pollution watchdog received Rs 24 crore in
2010 for the two projects: the first was to develop a web-based air quality
database and a decision support system for better management of air quality in
urban areas; the second was to set up 30 air quality monitoring stations across
eight states and in 43 critically polluted industrial clusters in 16 states.