The Congress on Sunday slammed the Delhi government’s cloud seeding experiment to tackle pollution, calling it a “cruel joke” that yielded only marginal, short-term improvement in air quality.
Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said the BJP government had spent Rs 34 crore on the winter cloud seeding project despite clear scientific advice against it.
The Congress leader cited a December 2024 Rajya Sabha reply from the Union Minister of State for Environment confirming that the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had all opposed the idea.
Ramesh also referred to an October 31, 2025, report from IIT Delhi’s Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, which concluded that winter cloud seeding would have little to no impact on the capital’s toxic air.
“Winter cloud seeding may look dramatic, but when the scientific consensus questions its efficacy, it becomes nothing more than a headline-grabbing stunt,” Ramesh said. “Getting slight improvement in a limited area for a day or two is really a cruel joke.”
The remarks came two days after Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed that “science-driven action and enforcement” were improving the city’s air quality, dismissing allegations of data manipulation. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also insisted that pollution data “cannot be tampered with.”
Opposition parties, however, continue to accuse the Delhi government of wasting public funds on unproven methods and manipulating air quality data to hide the worsening pollution crisis.