The government of Delhi — the world’s most polluted megacity — has proposed 26 new programmes to clean up its notoriously smoggy air.
The city included the anti-pollution initiatives as part of the Delhi government’s 530 billion Indian rupees (US$8.2 billion) budget for 2018-2019, released on 22 March. The government is promoting part of the funds as “a green budget” – but it’s unclear how much will go to specific initiatives, say policy experts. “It would have been better had the government made a separate financial provision for the green budget, rather than merely a lump-sum budgetary provision for all the schemes, programmes and capital projects,” says B. K. Chaturvedi, a former cabinet secretary who has managed many energy and environment programmes.
