
NEW DELHI: Congress leader and former Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on Friday accused former CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal of halting the construction of master drains along the Yamuna, a project intended to divert untreated sewage to treatment plants in Vrindavan.
He called this “criminal negligence” by the AAP government and launched a scathing attack on the AAP leader for blaming others for the river’s pollution.
Reaffirming the Congress’s commitment to ensuring clean air and a pollution-free Yamuna, Rawat held both the AAP-led Delhi government and the Centre responsible for the deteriorating condition of the river. He pointed out that untreated waste from 19 drains was flowing directly into the Yamuna, pushing pollution levels to 30 times above the permissible limit.
Rawat recalled that during his tenure as Union Water Resources Minister, a decision was made to construct master drains along both banks of the Yamuna within Delhi’s 22-km stretch. “Around 27 drains of Delhi were to be diverted into the master drain,” he said, adding that he had personally facilitated land acquisition for the project.
He explained that the master drain, designed to carry untreated waste, was supposed to connect with treatment plants before releasing treated water into the river near Vrindavan. “We had started the master drain work from Najafgarh, but after Congress, it was not taken forward. This is a huge negligence,” Rawat said, blaming both the AAP government and the Centre for failing to act.