Yamuna clean-up underway in time-bound manner: Delhi CM Rekha Gupta

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta further said that the Delhi government will build a park on the 50 acres of land in Uttam Nagar that belong to the Flood and Irrigation Department

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday asserted that the work of cleaning the Yamuna is underway, and the government is doing it in a time-bound manner.

"The work of cleaning Yamuna is going on. We are desilting the drains; hundreds of officials and large numbers of machines are working on the ground. Work is going everywhere, and the government is doing it in a time-bound manner," Delhi CM said.

She further said that the Delhi government will build a park on the 50 acres of land in Uttam Nagar that belong to the Flood and Irrigation Department.

"The 50 acres of land (in Uttam Nagar) that belong to the Flood and Irrigation department that was under encroachment in all these years and was not being used - today we have decided that on this 50 acres of land, we will build a beautiful park," Delhi CM told ANI.

Meanwhile, Delhi Minister Parvesh Verma said that the government is trying to build as many roads as possible before the arrival of the monsoon.

"We are trying to build as many roads as we can before the arrival of the monsoon, and then we have this target to recarpet the roads throughout Delhi. We will not leave any such roads with dust, as it also causes pollution. We are trying our best (to avoid waterlogging in the upcoming rainy season)," Verma said.

Earlier today, the Delhi Chief Minister, along with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and Minister Parvesh Verma, inspected the supplementary drain at Wazirabad in the national capital.

The Delhi government has assigned the Flood and Irrigation Department a special responsibility to ensure the timely desilting of drains. The drain (Wazirabad) is one of the major ones flowing into the Yamuna and is, hence, crucial in cleaning the river.

Notably, after the BJP won with a historic mandate of 48 of 70 Delhi Assembly seats, the cleaning process for the Yamuna River was taken up, and trash skimmers, weed harvesters, and dredge utility vehicles were deployed to the river on February 16.

Pollution in the Yamuna was a key issue during the Delhi Assembly elections, with political parties targeting each other over pollution, encroachments, and flood management. BJP attacked AAP and accused it of failing to deliver on promises of cleaning the Yamuna.