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The commission on air quality was established by the Centre in October last year.
New Delhi:
The central government s Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas has been shut down within five months of its constitution.
The commission, which was established by the Centre in October last year, has shut down as the ordinance under which it was set up has lapsed.
Union Environment Secretary R P Gupta said since the ordinance was not introduced in Parliament within six weeks of its convention, it has lapsed and consequently, the commission also stands shut, news agency PTI reported.
The Centre on Monday earmarked a separate Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres to tackle air pollution and announced the much-awaited voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and polluting vehicles, even as it shrunk the budgetary allocation for the environment ministry from the last fiscal by nearly eight percent. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech for 2021-22, announced a total of Rs 2869.93 crore for the ministry, Rs 230 crore less than the last fiscal. Officials said the outlay has been lesser this time as the economy is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Centre almost doubled the amount allotted to National Coastal Mission from Rs 103 crore in the last fiscal to Rs 200 crore in 2021-22, the allocation for the climate change action plan has been reduced from Rs 40 crore to Rs 30 crore and for Project Tiger from Rs 300 crore to Rs 250 crore.