Before Chhath, LG urges CM to clean up Yamuna

Expressing concern over pollution and the presence of toxic froth in Yamuna, where a large number of devotees are expected to offer prayers to the Sun during Chhath Puja, lieutenant governor VK Saxena has urged chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the issue urgently.

With a large number of people gathering at various places for the three-day festival, the LG on Friday wrote to Kejriwal asking him to take sufficient measures to ensure that the devotees went to the ghats in a "clean, conducive, safe and secure" environment. He added that lakhs of people would be gearing up for celebrating Chhath across Delhi after two years of restrictions imposed on festivities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It goes without saying that requisite safety measures need to be put in place at all puja ghats, including marking of danger zones, barricading of deep waters to avoid any untoward incident, adequate lighting, deploying divers and rescue boats. ...foam/pollution in Yamuna is of grave concern and, if left unattended, may prove to be injurious to devotees," the LG said.