Congress general secretary-in-charge (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the Delhi government has spent ₹34 crore on the winter cloud seeding experiment to improve air quality. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Congress on Sunday (Nov 2, 2025) hit out at the Delhi government over its cloud seeding experiment to improve air quality, saying the slight improvement in a limited area for a day or two, now claimed, is a “cruel joke”.
Congress general secretary-in-charge (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the Delhi government has spent ₹34 crore on the winter cloud seeding experiment to improve air quality.
On December 5, 2024, the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change responded to a question in the Rajya Sabha and said that the three specialized agencies, the Air Quality Management Commission in NCT, the Central Pollution Control Board and the India Meteorological Department, had clearly not recommended winter cloud seeding to improve air quality in Delhi, Mr. Ramesh said.
Then on October 31, 2025 — that’s just the day before yesterday — the well-known and prestigious Center for Atmospheric Sciences at IIT Delhi released a detailed report on the subject that clearly shows that winter cloudbursts will not help improve Delhi’s atrocious air quality in any significant way, he said.
According to him, winter cloud seeding certainly looks very dramatic and gives the impression that the government is demonstrably doing something.
“But when the overwhelming scientific consensus raises so many doubts and serious questions about its effectiveness, is it wise to care about it so much as a headline-grabbing measure?” the Congress leader said.
“Achieving a ‘tiny improvement in a limited area for a day or two’ as it is now being claimed is really a cruel joke,” Mr Ramesh said.
On X he also shared the reply of the Environment Minister in the Rajya Sabha and IIT Delhi report. Mr. Ramesh’s comments come two days after Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said science-driven measures and enforcement were yielding results as the city’s AQI showed a significant drop, dismissing allegations of data manipulation.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also said pollution data cannot be manipulated or tampered with.
The opposition has repeatedly criticized the government’s attempts to deploy the cloud and accused the BJP government in Delhi of manipulating AQI data to cover up the grim situation.
Published – 02 Nov 2025 11:47 IST
