New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) Amid political backlash over Delhi’s worsening air pollution levels and allegations by Aam Aadmi Party leaders of manipulation of air quality data, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa today dismissed reports questioning the city’s AQI figures, calling them “misinformed and misleading”.
Speaking at a review meeting on Delhi’s Winter Action Plan 2025, Sirsa said, “Let me clarify — Delhi’s 40 automatic air monitoring stations are tamper-proof and fully automatic. Data cannot be altered by anyone.”
He added that air pollution is monitored jointly by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), with results published simultaneously across multiple platforms. Sirsa also criticised “prediction-based reporting” on alleged data manipulation as “irresponsible and factually incorrect.”
Last week, AAP Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj released a video from the ISBT Pollution Monitoring Station showing MCD tankers continuously spraying water around the sensors to artificially lower AQI readings, calling it “data management, not pollution control.”
He alleged that the saffron party committed pollution data fraud by spraying water around the pollution monitoring centres. Bhardwaj also called out the BJP government for concealing and manipulating the pollution data at several stations across Delhi on the night of Diwali, misleading citizens into believing the air was safe.
Calling it “data theft at a government level”, Bharadwaj highlighted that dozens of Delhi’s pollution monitoring stations, including Nehru Nagar, JawaharLal Nehru Stadium, and Najafgarh, went offline at night and remained closed until the wind started blowing the next morning.
“This is blatant dishonesty and data theft — and against whom? Against the people of Delhi,” Bharadwaj remarked.
