Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ch. Anil Kumar said that with the National Green Tribunal slapping a Rs 6,100 crore fine on the Delhi Government for disposal of sewage water into the Yamuna river, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s lie has been nailed as he had claimed on the completion of three years in office in his present term that Delhi has achieved “33 per cent reduction in pollution level”. Ch. Anil Kumar said that the NGT should recover this money from the account of the Aam Aadmi Party, and not from the tax payers of Delhi, as it was due to the incompetence and inaction of  CM Kejriwal that the Yamuna water has become  dangerously toxic.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that the Kejriwal Government has squandered over Rs 5500 crore in the name of Yamuna cleaning, but it was yet another scam as the money went into the pockets of Kejriwal like all his other projects, his Ministers and his friends instead of using the money for  cleaning the Yamuna. He said that like his all other promises, Kejriwal’s assurance of cleaning up the Yamuna has remained on paper, despite unveiling a six-point plan by him in November 2021 to clean up the river by February 2025 by installing plants for in-situ treatment of effluents of large drains, and take a “dip in the river” before the next Delhi Assembly elections, but nothing has moved any further in the past one and a half years other than his promise.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that Kejriwal has only said lies and misled the people of Delhi regarding air and water pollution,  blaming neighbouring States for Delhi’s pollution, though experts have repeatedly pointed out that the prime causes of Delhi’s pollution were vehicular traffic within the city and release of effluents from Delhi drains into the Yamuna.

Ch. Anil Kumar said that in the past eight years, ever since Kejriwal came to power in Delhi, the NGT has imposed fines of several crores of rupees on the Delhi Government, but so far, the Kejriwal Government does not seem to have complied with NGT’s orders on penalties, which makes a mockery of NGT’s penal exercises.