New Delhi: Delhi's Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, on Sunday set June 30 as the deadline to clean the river Yamuna in National Capital, and said he will have no objection if any minister wants to take credit for their work.
"River Yamuna will be cleaned in Delhi by June 30. I have no objection if any minister wants to take credit for our work," LG VK Saxena said without naming anyone.
"The cleaning of Yamuna is going on at a fast pace. Najafgarh drains are being cleaned. 15-16 drains have also been fixed. We will clear the 22 km stretch of Yamuna in Delhi by that time. The work of cleaning the filth on the banks of the Yamuna is also going on in mission mode. We cleaned the Qudsiya Ghat in 15 days," he said.
Previously in March, VK Saxena chaired a meeting to devise ways for the revival of the Najafgarh Lake on the Delhi-Haryana Border, which is pivotal to the overall cleaning of River Yamuna in the national capital, an official release said.
"The major sources of pollution in the Najafgarh Lake, including the huge quantity of domestic and industrial effluent coming from Gurugram and the possible ways to overcome the pollution in the lake and preserve the aquatic life, were discussed threadbare in the meeting that coincided with the World Water Day," the statement had added.
"We are not working for taking credit but trying to provide a good environment to the people of Delhi. Even the Supreme Court has monitored Yamuna cleaning operations for 28 years. I want everyone to work together and clean the Yamuna," LG told ANI.
The Delhi government have decided to set up an ammonia removal plant to treat polluted Yamuna water coming from Haryana. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by CM Arvind Kejriwal in March, who gave instructions to set up the plant within six months.
Delhi Jal Board is trying to set up an in-situ treatment plant near the pond itself. DJB has started work on this. It is our endeavour to reduce the pollution level of ammonia present in the water by installing an in-situ treatment plant near the pond.
Through the in-situ treatment plant, the amount of ammonia will be reduced in the water to such an extent that when the treated water is sent from there to the water treatment plant, that water can be completely treated there and become potable. Delhi Jal Board aims to get rid of this problem within 6 months, a press note from the Delhi government stated earlier.
As a matter of fact, the water that Delhi gets from Haryana through the Yamuna is treated in the Wazirabad and Chandrawal water treatment plants of the city. Officials said that since December 11, Delhi is getting almost zero river water from Haryana. The water that is visible in the Yamuna near the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant is not actually of the Yamuna, but the industrial waste from Panipat and Sonipat, which is coming into the Yamuna through their drains.
The amount of pollutant elements in this water is so high that it is very difficult to cure it with a water treatment plant. Officials said that several letters have also been written by the Delhi Jal Board to the Haryana government on the issue of polluted water coming into the Yamuna. But the Haryana government has not taken any cognizance of those letters. (ANI)
