NEW DELHI: In a bid to accelerate work for cleaning the Yamuna river, the Delhi Assembly on January 19 approved a supplementary grant of Rs1,028 crore for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). 

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of trying to stop the work of cleaning the river.  Reportedly, Sisodia's statements were nothing but ‘habitual blatant lies’ aimed at safeguarding his government's abject incompetence and failure, a Raj Niwas official said.

The minister also placed Supplementary Demand For Grants before the Delhi Assembly. He claimed that the funds to Delhi Jal Board were stopped despite the budget approval from the House. 

The Lt. Governor exerted pressure on the officers in an effort to halt the cleaning of the Yamuna. The funding to Delhi Jal Board were halted even though the House had approved the budget. The Delhi government would not stop Delhiites from working no matter how hard the BJP and LG try, he continued.

According to officials in the lieutenant governor's office, the pollution in Delhi's Yamuna River has doubled over the past eight years of the Arvind Kejriwal administration, according to data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

As per sources, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) at Palla, where the Yamuna enters Delhi, was just 2 in 2014, which is below permissible standards. In 2014, the river's BOD load was 32 when it exited Delhi at the Okhla Barrage. However, in 2023, the BOD load at Okhla has increased to an astounding 56, while it is still 2 at Palla.

The Raj Niwas representative said that the current LG assumed office more almost seven months ago and that since then, he or she had made significant progress in improving the Yamuna and Najafgarh Drain.

When the NGT showed the government's disdainful disregard for the Supreme Court and the Yamuna, the deputy chief minister's words, the official claimed, "were nothing but habitual brazen lies aimed at defending his government's abysmal incompetence and failure."

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