Patiala sheds its most-polluted city tag, becomes cleanest among 74 cities

PATIALA: In 11 months, Patiala sheds its ‘most-polluted’ tag. The two reports — one by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the other by the World Health Organisation (WHO) — after analysing air quality, had placed Patiala at the top. But the latest data by the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) has found that the air quality of the city was in fact the cleanest among 74 cities of the country.

According to NCAP report, Patiala’s AQI has been found to be the best, while that of Jalandhar and Amritsar are in the moderate category. The average AQI recorded in Patiala was found to be below 100 micrograms/m3 during the last month. Jalandhar and Amritsar recorded between 100 to 200 micrograms/m3, which was in the moderate zone.

The report is in stark contrast to the CPCB report, released in April 2018. The CPCB report, which places Punjab in the third slot, was tabled in the Lok Sabha by minister of state for environment Mahesh Sharma. Patiala had been listed among the 17 most-polluted cities of the country. Other cities listed in the CPCB report were Dera Bassi, Gobindgarh, Jalandhar, Khanna, Ludhiana, Naya Nangal and Dera Baba Nanak.

A month later, in May 2018, WHO had come out with a report on ambient air quality of most-polluted cities in the world — Patiala got the 13th spot in it.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had challenged both these reports and had termed them unscientific. PPCB had claimed that the two reports had been based on PM 2.5 readings collected between 2010 and 2016. But till January 2018 there was no sophisticated equipment to record the PM 2.5 levels in Patiala.

However, defending its report, WHO had claimed that the database on which the report was compiled was based on ground measurements of annual mean concentrations of particulate matter and that it aimed at representing an average for the city or town as a whole, rather than for individual stations. It said the report was based on years of measurement-range, mostly from 2010 to 2016.

According to the latest data collected through continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) installed at 76 cities, Ghaziabad has been found to have PM 2.5 levels average at six times higher than the average of other cities. Delhi’s air quality remained above the safe limits on all days since November 2018 until January 2019’s first week, read the report.

‘Punjab’s stand vindicated’

Director of Tandrust Punjab, K S Pannu, who was earlier the chairman of PPCB and had challenged both CPCB and WHO reports, claimed that the latest NCAP data vindicates the stance taken by Punjab. According to him, after the CAAQMS came up in the city in January 2018, the readings of air quality never went up to a level where the city could have been placed in the list of most polluted cities of the world.