NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav on Saturday criticised the Rekha Gupta-led BJP government in the city over the worsening pollution levels in the Yamuna River, calling it a “grave concern”.
Referring to the July pollution report by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), Yadav said that pollution levels in the Yamuna have worsened since March.
This, he said, clearly exposes the BJP’s hollow promises on cleaning the river. He alleged that the government has only made tall claims about cleaning the Yamuna after assuming power in Delhi but has taken no concrete action. Instead, it has misled the public by performing symbolic rituals like Yamuna Aarti.
“BJP’s poll promise of giving top priority to cleaning the Yamuna has completely fallen apart after the DPCC report. As per clean water standards, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) should be 3 mg/litre or less, dissolved oxygen should be 5 mg/litre or more, and fecal coliform (indicating excreta/organic pollution) should be 500 MPN per 100 ml. Water becomes unusable when it reaches 2,500 MPN,” Yadav said.
He added that although the Delhi government allocated `9,000 crore for cleaning the Yamuna and sewage treatment, no visible work has been done in the last six months. No new sewage treatment plants have been built, nor have faulty ones been repaired.
“BJP-ruled states —Delhi, Haryana and UP— are coming together to formulate an action plan to clean the polluted Yamuna, but first the Gupta government should clean the 22 km stretch of the Yamuna running through Delhi, which is the most polluted, while the construction of 12 proposed decentralised STPs is still hanging in suspense,” Yadav said. He questioned how the government plans to operate a cruise boat in the Yamuna by December when the river remains highly polluted.