AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The BJP in Delhi came under attack from AAP with the latter alleging that one of the ghats made by the ruling party, which they claimed to be part of a clean Yamuna, was actually a pond filled with clean water.
AAP’s Delhi unit president, Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP-led Delhi government constructed a “fake Yamuna” at Vasudev Ghat, near the capital’s Interstate Bus Terminus by filling a pond with filtered water from the Wazirabad treatment plant, specifically for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ceremonial dip on Tuesday.
“The BJP has built a fake Yamuna by filling an artificial pond with filtered water while other devotees are left to wade into the real Yamuna full of filth and excreta,” Bharadwaj said. “Even if Purvanchalis die, the BJP’s propaganda must go on.”
The AAP also accused the BJP of diverting water from the Eastern Canal and using defoaming chemicals early each morning to cover up foam on the river surface.
Bharadwaj challenged Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to drink Yamuna water to prove its cleanliness. “The river’s water contains sewage and this has been confirmed by the DPCC report.”
BJP’s Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva rejected the allegations as “baseless political drama intended to divert from the opposition’s own governance record". “This is the first-ever instance in which an opposition party has protested against the government’s efforts to ensure cleanliness and sanitation.”
Sachdeva said that the AAP government had banned Chhath Puja on the Yamuna banks from 2018-24. “Why does the AAP leadership object to the government ensuring sanitation and clean water at the ghats?” he asked.