The BJP and the AAP on Thursday slung mud at each other on the streets of Delhi on the issue of cleanliness in the national Capital — landfill site at Ghazipur and the pollution in Yamuna ahead of the Chhath Puja.
As Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia headed to the landfill site in East Delhi, much drama ensued as scores of BJP supporters staged a protest, showed black flags and raised slogans against him. The AAP workers, in retaliation, converged just some feet away prompting police intervention even as the Delhi-UP border witnessed traffic jams.
The BJP took on the AAP and Kejriwal over the froth-filled polluted Yamuna. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari accused the Delhi Government of spraying poisonous chemicals to remove froth from the Yamuna ahead of Chhath Puja. Tiwari alleged they have seized about 50,000 liters of poisonous chemical and a complaint has been lodged with the police against Delhi Jal board (DJB) officials and Kejriwal’s own people who were pouring the chemical into the river.
Taking a dig at the BJP leaders’ accusation that Delhi Government is spraying chemicals in the Yamuna, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the BJP leaders should learn some science and technology, and added that the DJB’s anti-foaming technology (so called chemical) has also been recommended the National Mission for Clean Ganga, a Central Government agency.
“It’s absolutely stupid & incorrect to say that ‘a poisonous chemical’ is being used to suppress the foam in the Yamuna. Chemicals don’t mean poison. Even chlorine and alum that are used to clean water are chemicals,” Bhardwaj said.
Earlier, West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma challenged Kejriwal to take a dip in the Yamuna and alleged that the AAP chief’s visit to the Ghazipur landfill site was a ploy to divert attention from the issue of pollution in the river. Kerjiwal said that the BJP is trying to divert the garbage issue.
“I just visited the garbage mountain (at Ghazipur). It’s embarrassing - Delhi is the national Capital, people from across the world visit the city. And what do they see? A garbage mountain,” he said adding, “BJP, in 15 years, has lowered the heads of Delhiites in shame… In fact, across every street, there’s garbage. Even they are embarrassed. They stopped me on the way here, didn’t want me to see the Ghazipur landfill.”
“I want to ask the mothers and sisters of Delhi that your son made good schools for your children. Now BJP Ministers are coming and abusing your son. Will you put up with this? I want to ask Delhi’s senior citizens that your son became Shravan Kumar to send you on pilgrimage. Now, these Ministers are abusing your Shravan Kumar. Will you people tolerate this? Time has come for a befitting reply. They deployed police personnel to protect this garbage mountain. All evil forces have conspired against us (AAP). They delayed MCD polls and segregated wards hoping that they will get seats. Let me tell them that this time even the BJP supporters won’t vote for them,” Kejriwal claimed.
Countering Kejriwal, BJP MP from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, said that the Chief Minister should tell the people of Delhi how many times he visited the Ghazipur landfill site in last 7 years? “I have visited landfill site eight times in last the last three years. Today, when the landfill’s height is reducing, you (Kejriwal) are going there to do politics ahead of MCD polls,” Gambhir said. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta termed Kejriwal’s visit to the landfill site as a political gimmick. “For the last eight years, the Chief Minister of Delhi and no one in his Government remembered the landfill, but only after the flurry of MCD elections, they started remembering the problem of Delhi,” Gupta said.