The Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi came in for heavy criticism for sprinkling water to clear the toxic foam from Yamuna river surface at the eleventh hour on the occasion of Chhath festival. Users of social media fiercely trolled and ridiculed Kejriwal, commenting that the latter had been blaming other states for trivial issues while doing nothing to make Yamuna pollution-free.
A tweetarati, Bastola Ramesh, posted: “I feel pity for Delhi people who voted #SCIENTIST Kejriwal to power.”
Replying to his tweet, one Manoj said: “With free Bijli paani comes free Foam.”
Another netizen, Loken Dangal tweeted, “Scientist nahi #SatanicKejriwal”.
Meanwhile, UP minister and government spokesman Sidharth Nath Singh on Wednesday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government of Delhi for exposing thousands of people from UP and Bihar offering Chhath Puja to multiple health risks by neglecting cleaning of Yamuna river ahead of the festival.
“The AAP government of Delhi left workers from UP and Bihar in the lurch during the first spell of pandemic forcing them to flee the national capital. And now, they have exposed devotees from these states to multiple health hazards by neglecting the vital issue of increasing pollution of Yamuna. The devotees hardly have an option but to take the holy dip in the toxic foam,” said Singh.
The UP minister added that 730 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage was released into Yamuna against Delhi’s capacity to treat only 550 MLD of waste water daily. He said as many as 18 large drainages, which received huge amounts of sewage on a daily basis, culminated into the Yamuna heightening the pollution level of the river.
According to a report, the level of ammonia in river Yamuna has reached ominous level leading to formation of foam on the river water surface. The Kejriwal government may claim provision of free water to people, but as matter of fact, many areas of the national capital are in water crisis today.
The water of Najfgarh drain, one of the three major drainage networks in Delhi, has remained untreated for the last seven years. In contrast to the Kejriwal government, the UP government has taken a slew of measures in recent past to clean the river Ganga. Many polluting leather units have even been shut down by the Yogi Adityanath government in Kanpur for discharging huge quantities of polluted water on a daily basis.