JOIN USPolitics over Chhath got intense on Monday with the Congress alleging that the AAP government did not tie up with Haryana in time to ensure fresh water release upstream ahead of the festival of Poorvanchali community
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken criticised the Aam Aadmi Party government for the poor arrangement for the Chhath Puja festival starting on Tuesday.
“The Yamuna is dirty and polluted, devotees would be forced to do their puja in this dirty water,” he said.
Maken said the Kejriwal government has failed to ensure clean water in the Yamuna, the most important element in Chhath Puja, and is playing politics over giving financial help to residents’ groups for the festival in a “pick and choose” manner.
The Congress chief said, “The Kejriwal government neither writes to the Haryana government for release of fresh water into the Yamuna for Chhath Puja nor does the BJP-led Haryana government take any initiative to release water in the river.”
Maken, accompanied by former MP Mahabal Mishra, Delhi Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukjerjee and other party leaders also inspected the Chatth ghats on the banks of the Yamuna at a time when the other two rivals the ruling AAP and the BJP-ruled civic agencies are going all out to take credit for the arrangements for the festival.
The Congress leader said when his government was in power in Delhi, it used to ensure that Yamuna had clean water for Chhath Puja by writing to the Haryana government to release fresh water into the river a week before the festival began.
Maken said when Congress came to power in Delhi in 1998, there were only 13 ghats for Chhath Puja.
But Congress government increased the ghats to 74 so that Poorvnachali devotees could conduct the pujas in a smooth manner, he added.