As soon as the festival of Diwali arrives, the country's capital Delhi has been in the headlines for some years due to air pollution. This year too, Delhi's air has become so bad that strict measures like odd-even and school holidays have had to be taken. The Supreme Court has also ordered the states adjacent to Delhi to control stubble burning and artificial rain in Delhi is also being considered. While Delhi is at the top in terms of tax collection, per capita income and earnings, then why are the people of Delhi forced to breathe such polluted air?
'National Clean Air Program' (NCAP) has also been created to deal with the problem of pollution in many other cities of the country including Delhi. Apart from this, many works like 'Air Quality Index', smog tower and bio-decomposer to convert stubble into manure have been done to keep a constant eye on the air quality, but till now their results are visible only.
Delhi tops in tax collection
Apart from being the capital of the country, Delhi is also the economic power house of the country. If we look only at the GST collection, it was Rs 18,598 crore in October 2023. This is one of the top-10 states of the country. Delhi ranks second after Maharashtra in the total income tax collection of the country. According to the data of the Income Tax Department, the direct tax collection from Delhi for the last 3 years has been Rs 1.5 lakh crore or more.
Delhi also tops in terms of earnings
Now talking about the income of Delhi, the per capita income in Delhi has continuously increased. At the current price in 2022-23, it will be Rs 4.44 lakh. Whereas in 2021-22 it was Rs 3.89 lakh annually. That means it has increased by 14.18 percent in a year. It is among the few states with the highest per capita population in the country. This is much higher than the country's per capita income of 1.70 lakh.
Despite being on top in paying taxes and earning, more than 2 crore population of Delhi-NCR is yearning to breathe clean air. According to Lok Sabha data, initially a budget of Rs 443 crore has been allocated for the 'National Clean Air Program' (NCAP) prepared for clean air. Rs 756 crore has been given for pollution control in 2023-24, which is 26% more than last year's budget of Rs 600 crore. But the air of Delhi is telling that the result of all this is nothing.
In NCAP, 42 cities with population of more than 10 lakh have been given special preference. The 15th Finance Commission also released Rs 6,425 crore for these 42 cities, so that steps can be taken to tackle pollution along with development in these cities. City action plan has been made for a total of 132 cities of the country, where state governments and urban bodies have to work together on pollution control along with development work.
Green tax collection separately
To reduce air pollution, there are Pollution Control Boards and their budgets in the country. There is a provision of PUC to reduce vehicle pollution, failing which people have to pay a fine of up to Rs 10,000. There is a ban on old vehicles, diesel-powered commercial vehicles etc. in Delhi. Green tax is also collected on commercial vehicles and personal vehicles in Delhi, so that air pollution can be controlled.
No comments:
Post a Comment