River clean-up: Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj says officials ‘pressured’ by LG V K Saxena

NEW DELHI: The AAP government on Monday again alleged that lieutenant governor V K Saxena was trying to take “undue credit” for its work. It also claimed officials were being “pressured” under the “threat of suspension”.
The LG office did not respond to the allegations.
Targeting the LG over the Yamuna clean-up for a second straight day, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said Saxena had posted pictures on social media of a floating wetland project at a supplementary drain that he visited Sunday.
“In the picture, plants were seen in the wetland with plastic bags still on. This is because he had no idea of the scientific rationale behind the project. Officials are being pressured to do things under the threat of suspension,” he alleged.
He said the Delhi government had created the floating wetland scientifically, with the specific purpose of absorbing impurities from the water. “But under the LG’s pressure, it was planted with plastic… his actions are harming the project,” Bharadwaj claimed.
On Sunday, Saxena, while inspecting the supplementary drain in Wazirabad, had said, “If any minister of our government wants to take credit for work, I don’t have any objection. We are working here not for credit but to provide a clean Yamuna to the people of Delhi.”
Bharadwaj alleged that due to the LG’s “rush for a photo-op”, the plants in the floating wetland would die, and the soil and the plastic bags would further clog the drains and pollute the water even more.
In a dig at the LG, Bharadwaj said the Delhi government would give him a list of all projects nearing completion so he could inaugurate them before the CM and other ministers.
“A clean Yamuna can be achieved only when the sewer treatment plants being constructed by the Kejriwal-led government are completed. The LG may not be aware of this and believes the Yamuna clean-up can happen by only repairing drains. However, the river cannot be cleaned until all the STPs are operating at full capacity,” he said.
“The LG has been given control over services, including transfers, postings and suspension of officers. This authority is being misused by him to his own advantage,” Bharadwaj alleged.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Bharadwaj was “shaken” by the LG’s “speed of work”. “They are afraid the corruption of the last eight years might be exposed... No one knows what happened to crores of rupees given by the central government. But in the past six months, the LG got 22km of the Yamuna bank cleaned,” he said.