New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra on Sunday participated in a cleanliness drive at a Yamuna ghat and criticised the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, saying that it had failed to prepare a concrete plan to clean the river during its tenure.
Malhotra said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi, led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, had prepared a plan to clean the 33-km stretch of the Yamuna flowing through the national Capital.
“After the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Delhi, the government under Rekha Ji made a plan to clean the 33 kilometres of the Yamuna River that flows through Delhi. The previous government, led by Kejriwal, only played politics with the Yamuna, misleading people into believing that they would clean it,” he told IANS.
Accusing the previous government of failing to deliver on its promises, Malhotra said people had been assured that the river would be cleaned, but no concrete results followed even after five years.
“People fell for it, but when the Yamuna wasn’t cleaned after five years, he apologised and promised to do it in the next five years. When that time came, he did the exact same thing because they never made any plan for it,” the BJP leader said.
He also questioned the utilisation of funds provided by the Central government for cleaning the river, alleging that nearly Rs 2,900 crore were given to the Kejriwal government by the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Even the nearly 2,900 crore rupees given to the Kejriwal government by Modi Ji’s Central government had no action plan attached to it,” Malhotra added.
The cleanliness drive was part of a mega initiative being organised across Delhi to encourage public participation in keeping the Yamuna and its ghats clean. The Chief Minister’s Office had earlier appealed to people to join the campaign at 70 locations across the city on Sunday morning.
“The cleanliness of Mother Yamuna is our shared responsibility. Let us join the mega cleanliness drive being organised at 70 locations in Delhi on October 18 at 7.30 a.m. Reach your nearest Yamuna ghat and contribute to this public resolve,” the Chief Minister’s Office said in a message posted on X on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Malhotra launched more than 500 vehicles for door-to-door waste collection and 250 battery-operated litter-picker machines for Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) wards as part of efforts to strengthen sanitation services in the national capital.
Speaking at an event organised in Sarita Vihar, CM Gupta said the Delhi government was committed to providing the civic agency with all the resources required to improve sanitation services across the city.
Malhotra said development, in its true sense, had started in the national capital only after Rekha Gupta assumed office following the BJP’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections.
The initiatives come amid the Delhi government’s efforts to improve sanitation and waste management, alongside its stated push to clean the Yamuna.
–IANS
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