The Delhi government’s first-of-its-kind study to determine pollution sources in the national capital has been halted unilaterally and arbitrarily on the orders of Delhi Pollution Control Committee Chairman (DPCC) Ashwani Kumar, alleged city Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday.
In a press conference, Rai said the Delhi Cabinet had approved the study proposal in July 2021 and signed an MoU with IIT-Kanpur in October 2022.
“The estimated cost was over Rs 12 crore. The Delhi government had released Rs 10 crore to IIT-Kanpur for the procurement of necessary equipment and set up a centralised supersite for data collection,” he said.
The minister claimed that Ashwani Kumar, who took up the role of DPCC chairman in December, made a file note in February this year, expressing concerns about the “substantial expenses associated with the study”.
Following several meetings with IIT-Kanpur scientists, Kumar issued orders on October 18 to stop the release of the remaining funds to IIT Kanpur, effectively cancelling the study, Rai said.
“It’s very unfortunate that such a decision has been made at a time when Delhi urgently needs scientific data to address its pollution problem. Kumar put the lives of two crore residents of Delhi at risk,” he lamented.
The minister said Kumar also did not inform him or the Cabinet about his decision, and his actions were in gross violation of the Transaction of Business Rules.
In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Rai demanded that Kumar be suspended for his “insensitive and irresponsible behaviour”. According to Rai, Kumar was convinced that the source of Delhi’s pollution has to be internal factors and cannot be primarily attributed to outside factors such as biomass (stubble) burning.
