New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) The Congress on Sunday mounted a sharp attack on the Modi government over India’s worsening air quality crisis, citing a new independent analysis that found nearly half of the country’s cities suffering from chronic air pollution and accused the Centre of responding with what it called an “exceedingly ineffective and inadequate” policy framework. In a statement, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said a fresh analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) had confirmed that air pollution in India is no longer a regional or seasonal problem but a “nationwide, structural crisis” that the government has failed to address meaningfully. “Using satellite data, the study found that nearly 44 per cent of Indian cities—1,787 out of 4,041 statutory towns assessed—have chronic air pollution, with annual PM2.5 levels consistently exceeding the national standard over five years,” Ramesh said, referring to the period from 2019 to 2024, excluding the pandemic year 2020.
