NEW DELHI: The Congress’s youth wing filed a police complaint here on Wednesday, alleging “theft of rain” and claimed that the Delhi government’s Rs 1.25-crore cloud-seeding experiment failed to produce showers over the city.
However, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed the cloud-seeding trials were successful and slammed the Opposition, saying they are “jealous” of the success of the BJP-led government.
Delhi conducted cloud-seeding trials on Tuesday, after a gap of 53 years, to induce artificial rain in the National Capital amid surging pollution levels, even as the weather department did not record any traces of rainfall in the city.
The Delhi Government, in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur, conducted the trials in parts of Delhi, including Burari, North Karol Bagh, Mayur Vihar, and Badli. The government’s report stated that two precipitation events were recorded—Noida at 4 pm (0.1mm of rain) and Greater Noida at 4 pm (0.2 mm).
According to an official statement of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), its Delhi unit president, Akshay Lakra, submitted a complaint at the Parliament Street Police Station, demanding an FIR and investigation into what he described as “rain theft” following the cloud-seeding trial.
“Planes took off from Kanpur to Delhi in the name of cloud seeding, and the BJP Government put out big advertisements promising rain within 15 to 20 minutes to provide relief from pollution. However, no such rain was seen anywhere in Delhi, so we have come to file a complaint against this rain theft,” Lakra said.
The complaint calls for an inquiry into whether “unknown persons intercepted or diverted” rain, and seeks accountability for the public funds spent on the operation.
It also urges the police to coordinate with the meteorological department and IIT-Kanpur to trace the cause of the “missing rainfall”.
Officials involved in the cloud-seeding project, however, maintained that the process was carried out as per scientific protocol and the results depend on atmospheric conditions, which cannot always guarantee immediate rainfall.
They said the operation was aimed at testing the feasibility and gathering data for future interventions.
Lakra urged Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to “refrain from misleading residents” and focus on effective measures to curb pollution. “The people of Delhi deserve answers and at least a few drops of the rain they were promised,” he said.