Smog towers no solution; Centre not in favour of more giant air purifiers

Punjab told to immediately announce incentive scheme on lines of Haryana to encourage farmers to shift from paddy, manage stubble

Smog towers are not a solution to the air pollution problem in Delhi-NCR and the Centre is not in favour of installing more giant air purifiers, central government sources said on Thursday.

They said the effectiveness of smog towers in combating air pollution was discussed at an emergency meeting attended by officials from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the states, and ministries concerned on Wednesday. The sources said stubble burning in Punjab was the major reason behind air pollution in Delhi-NCR during the paddy harvesting season.

“Smog towers are not a solution to the air pollution problem in Delhi-NCR. The central government is not in favour of installing more such structures in the future,” news agency PTI reported quoting an unnamed official source.

In 2021, two smog towers were installed in Delhi — one at Connaught Place under the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and another at Anand Vihar under the Central Pollution Control Board — following the Supreme Court’s directions. The smog tower at Connaught Place was temporarily shut down due to “unilateral” directions by Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s Ashwani Kumar, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had claimed.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court directed that the Connaught Place tower be made operational. On Wednesday, a team of Delhi government officials restarted the smog tower.

Meanwhile, the sources said that in the meeting it was shown that based on CAQM data and the inputs provided by the state governments around 38 per cent of air pollution level was contributed by stubble burning on November 8.

The sources said the state governments had been advised to take immediate steps to check further stubble burning during the remaining harvesting season, particularly in Punjab.

The CAQM was asked to send flying squads to Punjab and Haryana and submit daily reports on the farm fire cases. Sources said the meeting noted that Punjab should immediately announce incentives on the lines of Haryana to encourage farmers to shift to other crops.