How many best performing National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) cities were…

The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in 2019, sets city-wise targets to cut particulate-matter pollution in non-attainment cities. Every year on International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies (7 September), MoEFCC felicitates the best-performing NCAP cities across population categories to recognise measurable air-quality improvement.

At the 2024 observance held in Jaipur on 7 September 2024, the Ministry honoured a total of nine best-performing NCAP cities, drawn three each from the three population categories used for NCAP city classification (million-plus, 3-10 lakh, and below 3 lakh population).

• Three matches the count of NCAP cities honoured within a single population category alone, not the combined national total across all categories.

• Twelve would correspond to four population categories of three cities each; the felicitation used only three population categories.

• Nine corresponds to three population categories with three awardee cities in each, i.e. 3 x 3 across all categories -- the total announced at the Jaipur event.

• Six would correspond to two population categories of three cities each, one category short of the full set covered in the felicitation.