Noida: Even as Noida and Ghaziabad rank among the world’s most polluted cities, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) is operating with nearly half its sanctioned workforce, reveals and RTI query. The shortage affected the board’s ability to utilise its annual budget and carry out pollution-control measures, it indicated.In 2025, Ghaziabad ranked first among the world’s most polluted cities with an average AQI of 183, while Noida (172) and Greater Noida (168) were among the top 10.According to the 2025 World Quality Report by IQAir, Loni in the Ghaziabad district emerged as the country’s most polluted city with an annual average PM 2.5 concentration of 112.5 µg/m³. Ghaziabad (89.2 µg/m³), Noida (80.5 µg/m³), and Greater Noida (77.2 µg/m³) all ranked among the region’s top 15 most polluted cities.Despite the challenge, UPPCB spent 70% of its budget in the 2025-26 financial year, down from 76% the previous year. In its response to the RTI query filed by environmentalist Amit Gupta, the board said Rs 111 crore out of a sanctioned Rs 155 crore was spent during the fiscal year.The shortfall in budget utilisation, the environmentalist said, was linked to a staffing gap as 369 of UPPCB’s 732 sanctioned posts were currently filled, leaving 363 positions (49.6%) vacant.The RTI response also showed that 35 employees retired in 2024 and 30 in 2025, while only 45 were recruited in 2024 and just one in 2025.Environmental damage, Gupta said, becomes far harder to reverse once it occurs. “Adequate staffing is essential for pollution monitoring, industrial inspections, environmental enforcement, laboratory operations and timely disposal of public complaints, but a perusal of the financial figures indicates how crippled the department remained even in 2024-25 when, as against the sanctioned budget of Rs 130.9 crore, only Rs 99.6 crore was spent,by the department,” he said.Another environmentalist, Abhisht Kusum Gupta, a regular petitioner before the National Green Tribunal on environmental law violations, said AQI figures capture only air pollution, while Uttar Pradesh has come to exemplify pollution across air, water and soil as well. Gupta, a complainant in a case involving wastewater discharge into the Yamuna through the Kondli irrigation canal and encroachment of waterbodies in Noida, said it is the board’s duty to protect water sources. He said it was unsurprising that inspection and enforcement efforts were suffering, given the department is functioning at half its sanctioned strength.
