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Bharatiya Janta Party leader Shehzad Poonawalla on Monday attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying he failed to fulfil his promise of making Yamuna clean.
Poonawalla accused Kejriwal of spending thousands of crores given by the Centre on advertisements or "doing corruption" instead of cleaning Yamuna. Notably, Poonawalla's remark came after visuals of Yamuna Ghat at Kalindi Kunj surfaced on social media showing devotees standing in knee-deep water, performing rituals on Chhath, all while the toxic foam covered the surface of the Yamuna River. It is pertinent to note that Delhi is already facing issues related to severe pollution and now toxic water conditions have escalated concern among the people. Further coming down heavily on the AAP-led Delhi government, Poonawala said, first they turned the city into a gas chamber and now the water has also become toxic. "This is the Kejriwal Model... First, they made Delhi a gas chamber... Now we have to suffer from toxic water too. When devotees entered the water to offer 'Arghya' to God Sun on Chhath Pooja, there was poisonous and foamy water everywhere," said Poonawalla. "Kejriwal made big claims about cleaning Yamuna (river). Thousands of crores were given by the central government, but they were used either in advertisements or corruption... The promises of removing toxic foams and ghats that would be made were not fulfilled... This is the Kejriwal Model," he added. Earlier, AAP minister Atishi inspected the Burari Ghat and made an assurance that the froth in the Yamuna would be cleared soon. However, she also blamed Uttar Pradesh for releasing polluted water into rivers passing through Delhi. "To remove that toxic foam, a sprinkling of food-grade chemicals and enzymes is being done there. The sprinkling team started the sprinkling work on 10 boats last night. In the next two days, the toxic foam will completely vanish...But I would like to urge the Uttar Pradesh government to not send its polluted water to Delhi," she said while speaking to ANI. AAP MLA and Vice-chairman of Delhi Jal Board, Somnath Bharti, after inspecting the Chhath Ghat in Kalindi Kunj, said that the foam in the water was not toxic and assured that from next year, the foam would not be seen. Like every year, this year too several pictures of women devotees surfaced on social media, showing them offering evening and morning 'Araghya' in the midst of the thick layer of foam rising in Yamuna. If experts are to believed, the white froth seen on the Yamuna surface is mostly a mixture of sewage and industrial waste and contains high levels of ammonia and phosphates, which can cause respiratory and skin problems. (ANI)
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