<span style="color: #222222;">Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav told the Lok Sabha that there were 1,213 air quality instruments operating in 465 cities and 26 rural areas across the country. He added that they were installed after considering the air quality. Mr Yadav was responding to questions by the Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi. Mr Gandhi said 63 cities out of 100 categorised as the most polluted cities on earth were in India.<br />''<br />''Listing the efforts taken by the government to strengthen the air quality monitoring system in the country, the minister told the house that 17 stations have been sanctioned for rural areas in 2021-22 while the Air quality early warning system for Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow has been implemented.<br />''<br />''The system provides alerts for taking timely actions.</span><br />