Delhi Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Saturday accused Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena of “taking credit” for the Aam Aadmi Party government’s work of cleaning the Yamuna, and challenged him to show evidence of initiatives he had taken for the project.
The latest conflict between the elected government and the L-G appointed by the Centre comes a day after reports said that Mr. Saxena chaired a meeting of a high-level committee (HLC), where official data was tabled showing that biological oxygen demand levels in the Najafgarh drain — which accounts for approximately 70% of wastewater discharge into the Yamuna — fell by 33% over the previous year.
The reduction was attributed to the intervention by the panel headed by the L-G and constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Mr. Bharadwaj said all the progress in cleaning the river was achieved in accordance with a comprehensive six-point action plan announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in November 2021. “This plan, devised by the Chief Minister himself, outlines crucial steps to address the core issues affecting the river and has served as the foundation for the Delhi government’s ongoing initiatives,” he added.
No response was issued by the L-G’s office on the issue.
However, a Raj Niwas source said that if the AAP government had done any concrete work for cleaning the Yamuna in the past eight years, the NGT would not have criticised it for inaction and formed the HLC.
The NGT order setting up the panel in January to monitor the cleaning of the river has been a flashpoint between the government and the L-G over who is actually responsible for the panel.
On Thursday, Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Saxena arrived at the inauguration of the east Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in east Delhi, with both claiming to have opened the new institution. At the ceremony, both the functionaries were heckled during their respective speeches by the crowd.
