By Mukesh 
The National Green Tribunal’s Southern Zone bench in Chennai has directed all six southern States and Puducherry to ensure “strict and time-bound implementation” of their State Action Plans (SAP) under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), in a common judgment that flags persistent particulate pollution across the region and warns that continued under-utilisation of clean air funds could attract environmental compensation.
The tribunal recorded that Karnataka had received ₹597.54 crore between 2019-20 and 2023-24, with Bengaluru alone receiving ₹541.1 crore but utilising only 13% by October 2024. A subsequent affidavit submitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change reported that 76% of total funds released up to 2025-26 had been utilised by September 2025. However, the bench flagged that more than 86% of utilised funds went to road dust control, with just 6.6% on vehicular emissions and 4.1% on biomass burning — describing this as “disproportionate expenditure” that must be “rationalised”.