Environment Minister Gopal Rai issues order to restart functioning of Delhi’s only smog tower

New Delhi [India]: With the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government coming in the line of Opposition fire amid runaway pollution in the national capital, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday said he has ordered the resumption of the functioning of the city’s only smog tower at Connaught Place. 

The smog tower stopped working after the personnel responsible for its operation ‘locked it’ due to non-payment of their salaries for December 2023 and no written ‘job guarantee’ from the Delhi government. 

“There were some issues such as non-payment of wages to employees because of which the smog tower was rendered non-functional. However, complying with the Supreme Court, I have now directed the tower to be made functional again,” the Delhi Environment Minister told reporters on Tuesday. 

Earlier, on Monday, Rai wrote to the principal secretary of Environment, directing the latter to release outstanding payments to personnel working at the smog tower. 

“Smog Tower at Connaught Place, Delhi, was installed by DPC on the directions of the’ Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter titled MC. Mehta vs. Union of India in 2020 and started operations in August 2021. It was conceived as a scientific R&D project, among an array of solutions, to help address the seasonal pollution problem in Delhi. For smooth operations of the project, an MOU was entered between DPC, NBCC and TATA Projects,” Rai wrote. 

“The operation of the Smog Tower was earlier arbitrarily stopped by the DPCC Chairman in August 2023 by stopping the release of O&M funds for the second year. The said action was taken suo moto by the DPCC Chairman in contravention of the decision of the Council of Ministers. GNCTD. The actions of the DPCC Chairman also made the Government NCTD liable to be charged for the contempt of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, as was pointed out in the note of the undersigned dated October 27, 2023, to the Hon’ble Chief Minister. Eventually, the Smog Tower was restarted after the intervention of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in November 2023,” the AAP leader added in his letter.

“Now, it has come to my notice through various newspapers that working on Smog Tower has been again stopped by the workers due to non-payment of salaries for the last two months. This is the negligence of duties by DPCC that was directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court as recently as November 2023 to ensure the continued operation of the Smog Tower and also amounts to direct contempt of court. It is also very concerning that the shutting down of the smog tower is taking place at a time when air pollution is still in the ‘very poor’ category in the NCT of Delhi,” it added.