On January 11, 2026, Congress raised alarms over India’s worsening air quality, calling it a "nation-wide, structural crisis." Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary and former environment minister, slammed the government's National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as "exceedingly ineffective and inadequate." A new study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) revealed 1,787 out of 4,041 Indian towns have chronic air pollution with PM2.5 levels above safe limits from 2019 to 2024. Yet, only 130 cities are covered under NCAP. Among them, 28 lack proper air quality monitoring, and nearly all monitored cities reported PM10 pollution at 80% or higher of set limits. Ramesh stressed that NCAP currently addresses just 4% of polluted towns and called for a major reform. He urged revising the outdated 1981 Air Pollution Act and the 2009 National Ambient Air Quality Standards to match stricter WHO guidelines. He demanded boosting NCAP funds from Rs. 10,500 crore to Rs. 25,000 crore and expanding its reach to the 1,000 most polluted towns. Ramesh also called for using PM2.5 as the main pollution measure, strengthening legal backing, enforcing pollution norms for coal power plants, and restoring the National Green Tribunal’s independence. Further, he accused the government of downplaying the health impact of air pollution in Parliament to hide its failures. "The Modi Government is not blind to the truth, it is only attempting to cover up the scale of its incompetence and negligence," he said.