The Central government on Wednesday allocated Rs 3079.40 to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as part of the Union Budget 2023.

Last Budget, the Centre had allocated Rs 3,030 crore to the ministry, and in the fiscal before that it allocated Rs 2,870 crore for the same. From last year’s Budget, Rs 963 crore was allotted to Central sector schemes/projects, Rs 930 crore was for Centrally sponsored schemes, Rs 685 crore was for establishment expenditure of the Centre and Rs 450 crore was for other Central sector expenditure.

Climate action and sustainability have been a key topic of discussion as well as implementation, especially in the last year, not just in the country but on various global platforms as well such as the G20, World Economic Forum, etc.

While India plans heavily on going green, to tackle the issues at hand such as pollution, the Centre has allocated Rs 948 crore.

Last fiscal, the government allocated Rs 460 crore to control pollution, which was Rs 10 crore more than the previous one’s Budget. However, Delhi's air quality did end up reaching the "severe" category and at one point in December last year Mumbai's air quality was worse (poor) than the former's (moderate).

The allocation for the National Mission for Green India reduced from last year's Rs 361.69 crore to Rs 220 crore in this year's Budget. According to the FY23 revised estimates, the allocation for the same had reduced to Rs 214.10 crore.

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First Published:Feb 1, 2023 2:06 PM IST