CITY | Thursday, February 18, 2010 | Email | Print |  | Back
No clean Yamuna in time for Games
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday said Yamuna river cannot be cleaned before the Commonwealth Games that are scheduled to take place Oct 3-14 in the national Capital. “Yamuna can’t be cleaned in a time of just few months. It will take time. We never promised to clean it before the Commonwealth Games,” Dikshit said. “We are making efforts to clean it. We are making interceptors to stop sewage flowing into Yamuna,” she added.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s 10-month-long monitoring of the Yamuna at Nizamuddin, the Yamuna water is unfit not just for drinking but even for bathing. Originating in the lower Himalayas, the Yamuna is 1,376 km long. The 22 km stretch that passes through Delhi is one of the most polluted. Recently spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar announced a three-month campaign to clean the river.
“We are installing interceptors to segregate sewage from flowing into the river. It will take time to clean the river... It took years for authorities in London to even clean the Thames,” she said. Officials said the government will continue to lay interceptors along major drains in Delhi in bringing down the pollution level in the Yamuna.
The main Opposition BJP has been accusing the city government of bungling funds given by the Centre to clean the river.
According to the government figure, over Rs 1,500 crore has been spent in the last couple of years on various projects to clean the river.
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