Congress targets govt. over air quality report ranking India as fifth most polluted country

Congress demands government roll back anti-people environmental law amendments after India ranked fifth most polluted country.

The Congress on Sunday (March 16, 2025) attacked the government after a world air quality report ranked India as the world's fifth most polluted country, and demanded that all "anti-people" environmental law amendments over the past 10 years be rolled back.

In a statement, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said the Swiss air quality technology company IQAIR has just released its 2024 World Air Quality Report which finds that India is the world's fifth most polluted country.

The Rajya Sabha MP said in his statement that according to the report, India's population-weighted average concentration of fine particulate matter is 50.6 µg/m3 which is 10 times the WHO's annual guideline level of 5 µg/m3.

He claimed that according to the report, 74 of the world's 100 most polluted cities are in India, and national capital New Delhi is the second-most polluted city in the world after Brynihat in Meghalaya.

"Among the lesser-known tragedies of the non-biological PM's reign is the rapidly deteriorating air quality nationally and the inattentiveness and policy chaos that has characterised the government's response to it," he said in his statement.

Mr. Ramesh cited several studies in the past about air pollution-linked fatalities in the country.

In early July 2024, he said, a study published in the prestigious Lancet journal showed that 7.2 % of all deaths in India are associated with air pollution which comes about 34,000 deaths each year in just 10 cities.