Budget focus: Mission clean air, drinking water, sanitation

NEW DELHI: Linking up quality of life parameters, the Union Budget has set aside big funding to improve access to clean water, sanitation and clean air across urban centres.

To tackle the ‘burgeoning problem of air pollution’, the Centre has set aside Rs 2,217 crores for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population--- also a key recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission.

Acknowledging the problem of vehicular air pollution, the Finance Minister has announced a new vehicle scrapping policy to allow voluntary scrapping of old vehicles which add to the polluting PM 2.5 in the air.


There is also a renewed focus on ‘cleaner’ public transport – a fleet of 20,000 buses run on clean fuel- are planned for urban centres on a PPP model. Low-cost version of the metro- Metro Lite and Metro Neo- are proposed for Tier 2 cities as well as peripheral areas around Tier 1 cities.

Urban sanitation will be targeted in the second avatar of Swachch Bharat which will look at both--faecal sludge management and waste segregation and treatment.

From and bio-remediation of all legacy dumpsites to reduction in single-use plastic and managing dust from construction-and-demolition activities which also increase air pollution---this entire gamut of activities will be covered under the Mission 2.0 for which Rs 1,41,678 crore has been allocated for a five-year period for the mission.


One of the biggest chunks of funding has come for the youngest ministry of this government- the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission to provide access to tap water to every household.

From a Rs 10,000 crore allocation in 2019-20, the Mission has Rs 50,000 crore set aside this year.

The soon to be launched Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban)- a Rs 2,87,000 crore project- is further proposed to reach water supply to all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crores household tap connections.

There are also the 15th Finance Commission grants to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) which have risen from Rs 30.375 crore to Rs 36,022 crore in 2020-21.

The Jal Jeevan Mission- launched in August 2019- has enabled tap water connections to 3.32 crore rural households so far.