Thousands of people participating in ‘Yamuna Bachao Yatra’ have reached Delhi on Monday. Protesters are camped at Ali Gaon near Badarpur border after reaching the Capital. On Tuesday, they would march towards Parliament, demanding that the Central Government would also take up the matter to clean Yamuna. The march started from Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh on March 1 and after reaching Delhi, BJP president Vijay Goel and thousands of workers welcome the participants at Badarpur Border. National general secretary Ramlal and national secretary Shyam Jaju, former Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta, member Delhi Assembly Ramesh Bidhuri were also present.
Addressing the participants of yatra, Goel said out of 1,376 km, Yamuna flows in about 48 km in the Capital. The most polluted part of the river is in the city. “Our party has released a nine point’s vision document which should be accepted by the Government. When BJP will come to power, its first priority will be to clean Yamuna,” he added.
Gupta said with large number of vehicles, including tractors and water tankers in the convoy, the administration is concerned about traffic jams and had the yatra members to stay at Ali Gaon during night.
“On Tuesday morning, all the protesters would be marching towards Parliament demanding concrete action to clean the river. All the industrial waste and residuals of factories are being released into the river. After drinking this water, a large number of people are getting ill and developing health problems. We will not sit until and unless Yamuna will be free from this pollution,” Gupta added.
Sunil Kumar of Yamuna Rakshak Dal, who is also incharge of the ‘padyatra’ said, “One of the demands that we have from the Government is that more water should be released from Hathnikund barrage, located in Haryana, where the State extracts almost 87 per cent of the river’s flow, thereby leaving hardly any fresh water in the river”.