Last November, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta had sharp words for authorities in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh for failing to control the practice of stubble-burning on farms, which contributes to air pollution in Delhi at the beginning of every winter. In this context Smog Towers came in news.<\/p>\n
A proposal on the towers was then submitted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In January, the Supreme Court directed that two towers should be installed in the capital by April on a pilot project basis \u2014 one at East Delhi\u2019s Anand Vihar, and another at Central Delhi\u2019s Connaught Place.<\/strong><\/p>\n This timeline was never met, however. This infuriated the apex court, and on July 29, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that IIT Bombay had indeed withdrawn from the project.<\/strong><\/p>\n This upset the Bench greatly. \u201cHow can they back out from a government project? We will draw contempt against them. What is this nonsense?\u201d the Bench of Justices Mishra, Vineet\u00a0Saran, and M R Shah said. The next day, the Central government informed the court that IIT-B was back on board, and would be signing a Memorandum of Understanding for the project worth over Rs 36 crore.<\/strong><\/p>\n