Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena has issued an order to identify the officers responsible and take strict action for delay in the upgradation/rehabilitation of Rithala Phase-I sewage treatment plant (STP) – for five years, that has resulted in the discharge of a massive 37,000 million gallons (nearly 15,000 crore liters) of untreated sewage into the Yamuna since January 2020 till now.  The L-G has set the deadline of June 2023 for ensuring 95% of sewage treatment before being discharged in the Yamuna. The LG was also informed that the ongoing work on the Rithala Phase-I STP will be completed by June 2023.

Accusing the Arvind Kejriwal government for not granting permission for translocation of trees that was necessary for executing the project even as the Centre has funded the project, the Raj Niwas officials said the files pertaining to this project were pending with the environment department of Delhi government for nearly two years.

The AAP government had earlier stalled dozens of projects of national significance including AIIMS redevelopment, IIT, Delhi Metro, Central Vista, National Highways and residential flats for government employees for up to 03 years by denying permission for tree translocation.

“This prompted Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to recall these files using his special powers under Rule 19 (5) of Transaction of Business Rulle (ToBR), which forced the Kejriwal Government to clear these proposals. However, this is a rarest of rare cases where the Kejriwal government has stalled the work of Rithala STP to derail the Yamuna cleaning operations which is being monitored by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal,” said officials of the Raj Niwas.

This matter came up for discussion in the recent meeting of the High Level Committee constituted by the NGT on Yamuna Rejuvenation, wherein Lt. Governor, Saxena expressed grave displeasure and annoyance over such deliberate misconduct on part of the Delhi Government.

“The Lt Governor noted that nothing could be more criminal than “poisoning the Yamuna by stalling such key projects.” He has issued instructions to identify the officers responsible for this deliberate misconduct and initiate strict action against them. The LG has set the deadline of June 2023 for ensuring 95% of sewage treatment before being discharged in the Yamuna. The LG was informed that the ongoing work on the Rithala Phase-I STP will be completed by June 2023,” reads the statement.

The work of “Rehabilitation and Up-Gradation of Rithala Phase-I Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)” was awarded to a private firm namely M/s. VA Tech Wabag Ltd. in June 2018 and the same was scheduled for completion in December 2021. However, the government deliberately kept sitting over two files for translocating over 500 trees for 03 years without assigning any justifiable reason. The LG was informed that the first file for tree translocation was kept pending for 17 months, while the 2nd file related to it was pending for 20 months. The permission was granted only after interference of the Yamuna Monitoring Committee constituted by the NGT.

As a result, the project remained stuck for complete 03 years and the upgradation/rehabilitation work could start only after July 2021, and is still pending completion. All this while, 40 MGD of untreated sewage kept getting criminally dumped by the DJB into the Yamuna, through the Supplementary and Najafgarh drain.

As per the contract, the private firm which was already operating and maintaining the STP, had taken over the Rithala Phase-I STP for rehabilitation in July 2018. The firm was operating half portion only for sewage treatment while the remaining half portion was to be rehabilitated/upgraded. The firm had completed 18-months operation tenure on 01.12.2019, following which, the firm was asked to continue with operation and maintenance of the STP but it expressed inability to do so citing an extra expenditure of Rs 78 lakh for repair of equipment. In the meantime, the DJB also carried out an inspection and found that the STP could not achieve the prescribed final effluent parameters i.e. TSS/ BOD as 20/30 mg/I because this plant was designed for TSS/ BOD as 30/50 mg/I. Further, operation of this plant incurred a cost of Rs 19 lakh per month, and accordingly, it was decided to fully stop the sewage treatment at the STP until it was completely rehabilitated.

“The rehabilitation work of half portion could not be completed due to awaited permission for tree cutting from Delhi Government and the delay was not on the part of M/S VA Tech Wabag Ltd… it is proposed to stop the interim operation as sewage being treated is not meeting design parameters and to save wasteful expenditure of Rs. 19 lacs being at present is of no use,” the DJB observed.