DDA to fast-track debris clearance from Yamuna

NEW DELHI: After the scrutiny of the National Green Tribunal, the Delhi Development Authority has decided to fast-track the clearance of the debris from the Yamuna. Days after the immersion of Durga idols, the only river body of the Capital was covered with debris and remains of idols.

"We will fast-track the process of clearing and we are confident that before Diwali the whole process of clearance would be done," said an official.

He added that the DDA has already started the work and in the last week they have cleared nearly 100 tonnes of debris. "The remains are not only of plaster of Paris but of many other materials which are difficult to remove," he said. The officials admitted that after puja the garbage has many small and tiny materials which make the clearance work more difficult.

DDA had last week told the National Green Tribunal that it has removed around 80 tonnes of debris dumped on the Yamuna floodplains after the idol immersions in the recent festivals. The green panel had directed the Delhi government and other authorities to submit a status report on the condition of river Yamuna after the immersion of Ganesh and Durga idols.

DDA told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that the responsibility for organising and managing the immersion of idols at specially created ghats on Yamuna floodplains vested with the Department of Irrigation and Flood Control and the municipal corporations concerned.

"The irrigation and flood control has already cleared the immersed idols from the specified ghats created for the purpose of immersion of idols and has dumped the same on the floodplain, in place of disposing safely in MCD construction waste site within a period of 48 hours from immersion, which is in violation of this tribunals direction,"DDA told the NGT. The clearance work will be finished before the Diwali festival and the DDA will also submit a final report to the NGT, officials said.