Yamuna cleaner ahead of Chhath this year, says Delhi water minister

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) The quality of Yamuna river water ahead of Chhath is better than last year, Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma said on Saturday, citing data on faecal coliform bacteria.

In a press conference held jointly with Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Verma slammed the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for targeting the BJP government over pollution in Yamuna during the Chhath festival.

He said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) collected Yamuna water samples on October 9 and October 20 from eight points including Palla, Wazirabad Barrage, Okhla Barrage, ITO and Yamuna Canal.

The faecal coliform bacteria concentration has come down to 7,900 units per 100 millilitre at Nizamuddin this year, from 11 lakh units per 100 millilitre last year, the minister said.

Similarly, the count dipped over the year from 920 to 600 units at Palla, from 16,000 to 800 at Wazirabad, and from 35,000 to 7,000 at ITO, he said.

"They (the opposition) are baffled because our government, led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, is doing a lot of work and women are praising the preparations being made for Chhath celebration," Verma said.

According to Verma, water samples collected from ISBT also showed improvement with the bacterial count down to 8,000 this year from 28,000 in 2024. It dropped to to 2,700 from 18 lakh at Okhla and to 1,600 from 22 lakh at Agra Canal.

"Additionally, the government has removed 20 lakh metric tonnes of silt from key drains, improving flow and preventing pollutant build-up," the minister added.

AAP leaders, including its Delhi unit president Saurabh Bhardwaj, have been raising the issue of pollution in Yamuna, while the truth is that no DPCC reports on it were published during the AAP government's rule, Verma alleged.

In an X post, AAP's Bharadwaj cited a DPCC report dated October 23, claiming that the Yamuna's water was not even suitable for bathing and contained human waste in alarming quantity.

He alleged that the Haryana government has diverted water from the Eastern Yamuna Canal for a week, and the pollution levels could worsen once the diversion stopped.

"Bharadwaj selectively showed the October 9 DPCC report, but did not mention that during his tenure, locations like Asgarpur had faecal coliform levels as high as 80 lakh. Today, that same location has dropped to just 8,000 -- a clear reflection of our government's work," Verma said, responding to Bhardwaj's remarks. PTI VIT SSM MHS RUK RUK