Reacting to the Delhi Government’s plans to clean the Yamuna by 2025, the BJP and the Congress said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had already wasted seven years without achieving anything and was bringing up the issue due to the upcoming civic polls.
The Delhi Congress said that the Chief Minister was trying to divert Delhiites’ attention from the pollution issue in the Capital by announcing plans to clean the Yamuna. Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said that Mr. Kejriwal has made promises in the past that he will make the Yamuna like the Thames of London, but has forgotten them all.
“Mr. Kejriwal has completed seven years of tenure. This should reveal what efforts he has made so far for cleaning the Yamuna. The Union Minister for Water Resources Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had written to him on July 1 asking where the funds of ₹2,419 crore which were given by the Central Government to the Delhi Government for cleaning the Yamuna were spent. The public wants an account of that fund,” Mr. Bidhuri said.
He added that if the Delhi Government had not been able to achieve any results in seven years, then how will the Yamuna become clean in the remaining three years.
Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar said that whenever a crisis erupts and the Delhi Government fails to tackle the problem due to inefficiency and governance failure, Mr. Kejriwal comes up with many excuses and plays a blame game.
“Whenever a problem gets out of control, like the air pollution, Mr. Kejirwal declares a “yudh” (war) against the crisis, and spends crores from the exchequer for publicity, without addressing the problem haunting the city. The plan to clean the Yamuna on a “war footing” is yet another false promise,” Mr. Kumar said.
