Delhi LG hails bureaucrats for work on Yamuna, cleaning landfills

Saxena, who completed one year as the LG on Friday, was addressing a workshopfor civil servants at Vigyan Bhawan

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Friday asked civil servants in the Capital to work towards a corruption-free bureaucratic system even as he applauded their efforts in helping to make the Yamuna river clean and better management of waste in the city.

Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena. (HT Photo)

“I have closely observed that if you have the will to work then nothing is impossible. And that has been proved in these cases. All the officers deserve accolades as they have left no stones unturned to achieve these targets. In the past one year, the officers of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have done an amazing work for reducing height of the garbage dumps at the three land fill sites, through remarkably enhanced bio-remediation. These efforts had led to reducing the height of the dumps by up to 20 metres,” Saxena, who completed one year as the LG on Friday, said while addressing a workshop on capacity building for civil servants at Vigyan Bhawan.

The LG heads high-level committees formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in January this year on Yamuna rejuvenation and solid waste management.

In his address, Saxena said that no substantial results had been achieved in cleaning up Yamuna in the past. “However, the same officers and staff had started giving positive results after the January 9, 2023 order of the NGT. Yamuna is slowly but surely moving on a path of rejuvenation. This only proved that officers working with zeal, commitment and honesty were capable of achieving any results. In the last one year, we’ve also tried to end the culture of ad-hocism. For that, about 17,000 permanent appointments were made to various departments and agencies of the Delhi government through DSSSB and UPSC,” he said.

More than 200 bureaucrats, including chief secretary Naresh Kumar, attended the workshop. “To give corruption-free administration to society, the responsibility lies on the civil servants and the entire society looks upon them in context of people-friendly and corruption-free governance,” the LG said. “It is necessary for the officers to constantly analyse the rules, which are impediment to development work, and if necessary, remove those rules for the benefit of the people.”

Meanwhile, Delhi government officials did not respond when HT reached out for comments.