New Delhi, Feb. 14 -- Road dust and construction account for between 14% and 58% of air pollutants across cities, the Union environment ministry told the Rajya Sabha, citing an unspecified number of source apportionment studies for an unspecified number of cities. The ministry's response points to one of the major sources of air pollution across the country, arising from unpaved roads and pavements, and unregulated construction, but exacerbated, in cities such as Delhi, by desertification and desert winds. The other sources mentioned by the ministry in the Rajya Sabha are vehicular emissions (10-33%), industrial sources including thermal power plants (8-34%), and waste/biomass burning (8-29%). The data was shared by Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state for environment , in a written response to a question from Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain. One part of the question mentioned that no district in India met WHO standards of air quality, but Singh said in his response that the agency's guidelines "serve as only a guidance document and these are recommended values for air pollutants to help countries achieve air quality". He added that "countries prepare their air quality standards based on geography, environmental factors, background levels, socio-economic status and national circumstances". He further added in his response that "pollution levels across countries are not comparable due to differences in geographical settings, weather conditions, and national circumstances". "To address air pollution in the urban areas, Government of India has launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy to improve air quality in 130 non-attainment and million plus cities/urban agglomeration in 24 States/UTs," Singh said in his response. Hindustan Times has previously reported, citing a Centre for Science and Environment assessment, that mitigating road dust was one of the major focus areas of NCAP, with 64% of the total funds (Rs.10,566 crore) used for road paving, widening, pothole repair, water sprinkling, and mechanical sweepers, and only 14.51% of funding has been used for controlling biomass burning, 12.63% for reducing vehicular pollution and a mere 0.61% for controlling industrial pollution....