The Lieutenant Governor’s Office of Delhi stated on Monday that during the last eight years of the Kejriwal Government, Yamuna pollution has doubled. As per the data presented by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) before the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, in terms of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), the Yamuna River at Palla has load of mere 02 in 2014. When the river left Delhi at Okhla Barrage, BOD load in it was 32 in the same year. However, in 2023, while the BOD load at Palla remains at 02, the same at Okhla has risen up to a staggering 56.
In the last eight year, the pollution in the Yamuna River has increased by around 75 percent in the national capital as of 2014.
The LG had called a meeting to take stock of the ground situation before the first meeting of a high-level committee set up by the National Green Tribunal on January 9 for the cleaning of the Yamuna where the DPCC and DJB made a detailed presentation. The green tribunal had requested the Delhi LG to head the committee.
“The year on year rise in pollution has been consistent since 2014, with the only exception being the year 2019, when Haryana – which was undertaking repair of the Yamuna Canal, released more than four times water into Yamuna from the HathiniKund Barrage. The same resulted in pollutants getting washed downstream,” they claimed.
The sources said that this deadly increase in pollution is mainly on account of, the AAP Government failing absolutely to check pollution from the Najafgarh Drain, despite persistent directions and monitoring of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.
“While in 2014, BOD at ISBT, just after the Najafgarh Drain falls into Yamuna was 26, in 2017, it rose to 52 and remains at a high of 38 even to date,” they said.
“Najafgarh Drain accounts for 68.71 percent of the waste water being discharged into Yamuna, and the second biggest polluter is the Shahdara Drain that accounts for 10.90 percent of discharge,” they underlined.