Credit wars: AAP govt, L-G spar over Yamuna yet again

An L-G House official termed the allegations “petty, self-defeating, and laughable”. The official claimed that had the Delhi government done a “single concrete thing” with regard to cleaning the Yamuna in the last eight years, apart from making “hollow announcements”, the National Green Tribunal would not have “slammed the Delhi government for inaction and constituted a special high-level committee and requested L-G to chair it.”

The official quoted from the NGT order dated January 9, in which the bench had observed, “It does appear that the situation to a great extent remains unsatisfactory, in violation of judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court and orders of this tribunal, fixing rigid timelines, which are being defied at whims, without accountability and without visible improvement…” It further said: “… we constitute a high-level committee of concerned authorities… We request Lieutenant Gove-rnor, Delhi, who is Chairman DDA and Administrator of Delhi… to head the committee.”

Water quality in the Yamuna is showing signs of improvement with the biochemical oxygen demand — proportion of which determines pollution levels in a water body — having fallen compared to last year in Najafgarh drain and in the river from the point where it meets the drain, according to Delhi Pollution Control Committee figures presented at a meeting on Friday.

During the fifth meeting of the high-level committee, chaired by L-G VK Saxena, progress on work was reviewed.

A day later, Bhardwaj accused the L-G of seeking to claim credit for Delhi government’s “significant progress” in cleaning the river, stating that progress made had been executed in accordance with six-point action plan announced by the Chief Minister in November 2021. These, he said, included increasing STP treatment capacity, in-situ treatment of major drains, upgradation of CETPs to handle industrial waste, linking community toilets and JJ clusters to the sewage system, expanding household sewage connections, and desilting and rehabilitating the sewerage system.

“Regrettably, the L-G office has been misrepresenting the initiatives undertaken by the Delhi government as his own. The L-G office copies minutes of meetings and presentations from departments such as DJB and Irrigation and Flood Control Department, and presents them falsely claiming that these are the sole achievements of the L-G,” Bhardwaj alleged.