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Yamuna cleaning begins days before BJP government formation in Delhi
During his address at the BJP's assembly poll victory celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to make every effort for pollution-free Yamuna.
The cleaning of river Yamuna began on a four-pronged strategy on Sunday, days ahead of the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the national capital.
According to a PTI report, the Raj Niwas officials said that the work on cleaning the river has begun using trash skimmers, weed harvesters, and a dredger.
During his address at the BJP's victory celebrations on February 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to make every effort for pollution-free Yamuna.
“Maa Yamuna is the source of our spirituality. We bow down to the Yamuna devi who always wishes us well. But these people (AAP) did not pay any attention to Maa Yamuna, and insulted our beliefs. The beliefs of the people of Delhi were crushed under the feet of these people (AAP) and then blatantly accused Haryana,” the prime minister had said.
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On Saturday, Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena met the chief secretary and additional chief secretary (irrigation and flood control) and directed them for taking up Yamuna cleaning work.
Four-pronged strategy to clean Yamuna
According to the PTI report, the four-pronged strategy to clean Yamuna involves removing trash and silt from the river stream and simultaneous cleaning operations in Najafgarh drain, supplementary drain and other major drains, they said.
The strategy also involves daily monitoring of capacity and output of the existing sewage treatment plants, and a time-bound construction of new STPs and decentralised STPs to meet the actual shortfall of treating about 400 MGD of sewer.
"Execution of this ambitious plan that targets cleaning the river in about three years, will require seamless coordination between various agencies and departments including Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Jal Board, I&FC, environment department, public works department and Delhi Development Authority," an official at the Delhi LG office told PTI.
"Monitoring of these works will be done in a weekly basis at the highest level. Besides, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has been directed to keep strict vigil on discharge of untreated effluent into the drains by industrial units," the official added.
Earlier, an extensive project for Yamuna rejuvenation was taken up in mission mode in January 2023 under the National Green Tribunal (NGT) mandated high-level committee chaired by the LG.
The committee, however, after five meetings stopped functioning as the then AAP government in Delhi approached the Supreme Court challenging its formation. The top court stayed the NGT order for formation of the committee on July 10, 2023.
For a brief period when the committee was in existence, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) had started improving slightly on a month-on-month basis.
(With PTI inputs)
