Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Thursday visited Yamuna ghats to highlight water pollution ahead of the Chhath Puja celebrations on October 30 and 31.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Ghazipur landfill site and accused the BJP-ruled municipal body of not working to curb air pollution.
Delhi BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma and Manjinder Singh Sirsa visited the Yamuna River near Kalindi Kunj and took a boat ride to highlight Delhi’s government’s inaction in cleaning the river.
Speaking to the media, Tiwari, who is also a Lok Sabha MP from northeast Delhi, said, “Kejriwal had promised in 2013 to clean the river Yamuna. And despite spending ₹1,200 crores, Yamuna is still polluted as it is dirty and foam can be seen floating on it.”
Tiwari said that in the past eight years, the river has not been cleaned and the foam can be seen floating in the river. It is a risk to the people who will take a dip in the river.
“When the BJP leaders reached Kalindi Kunj, a few people were trying to mix chemicals in the water to hide the foam. After seeing us, they escaped from the spot,” he alleged.
Tiwari also said that the Delhi Police have seized 50,000 litres of chemicals and have registered a case.
Targeting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Tiwari said that for them, pollution is not an issue. “If AAP thought pollution was an issue, their Chief minister Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia would have visited the Chhath ghats in the city ahead of the festival,” he accused.
Hitting out at AAP, the BJP leader said that the Delhi government is misleading the people of the city.
“To hide their failures, they (AAP) are misleading the people of the national capital, especially those who are celebrating the Chhath puja festival. They are playing with the health of people. Instead of improving health, it is distributing death to the people,” he added.
Verma said that lakhs of litres of dirty water laced with chemicals are released into the river every day. “The foam floating in the river Yamuna is the reality that he has been unable to keep his promise of cleaning the Yamuna river.”
“They claimed that they spent ₹1,200 crores to clean the river, but where has that money gone? Has it (money) gone into the pockets of his ministers or MLAs,” the BJP Lok Sabha MP from west Delhi asked.
“How can Kejriwal ask the people celebrating Chhath puja to take a holy dip in river Yamuna? He has turned the river into a dirty canal,” he alleged.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal, along with Sisodia, visited the Ghazipur landfill site and slammed the BJP, which staged a protest with black flags.
Dubbing the BJP’s protests as “illogical”, Kejriwal underlined that he had sent Delhi’s elderly citizens on free-of-cost pilgrimages. He also called himself Delhi’s “Shravan Kumar”, the Ramayana hero known for taking his parents to shrines.
Kejriwal alleged the BJP in its 15-year rule in Delhi’s three erstwhile municipal corporations gave three garbage mountains and filled the entire city with garbage.
“Ghazipur garbage mound is the mountain of the BJP’s bad deeds and corruption in civic bodies. The MCD poll will be fought on the issue of garbage,” Kejriwal said.
“BJP leaders abuse your son (Kejriwal), your Shravan Kumar, who took you on pilgrimage. Will you tolerate this? Give them a reply in the upcoming MCD polls,” the Delhi chief minister said.
He also alleged that the BJP “gobbled up ₹2 lakh crores” during their 15-year rule in the civic bodies.
“They claim that I did not give money to the MCD. In the last 15 years, they gobbled up ₹2 lakh crores, of which ₹1 lakh crore was given by the Delhi government,” Kejriwal alleged.
The AAP has raised the pitch of clean Delhi ahead of the MCD elections, the dates of which are yet to be announced.