Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday approved the formation of the Yamuna Cleaning Cell (YCC) to expedite inter-departmental decision making and execution of projects for cleaning the heavily polluted Yamuna river in the city. The cell will be headed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) – Udit Prakash Rai and will have representatives of all the departments concerned.
"In order to expedite inter-departmental decision making and execution, we formed a Yamuna Cleaning Cell (YCC) today, headed by CEO, DJB and representatives of all concerned depts. This will expedite the Yamuna cleaning process," Kejriwal tweeted.
In a high-level review meeting, Kejriwal approved the formation of a cell where senior officials including Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev were present. “As a responsible Government Yamuna Cleaning is our priority at this stage. We have to work upon this issue with the same mindset and seriousness that we had while transforming the education sector and the healthcare sector in the last term. There can be no compromises with the prioritisation of Yamuna Cleaning and Water Supply in this term.
They have to be our highest priorities,” Kejriwal said, adding, “ a complex system of multiple bodies is a challenge. To overcome this, we are formulating a Yamuna Cleaning Cell that will oversee the working of all the bodies. It will help us in identifying and delegating responsibility and streamline our projects. For instance, if an issue is being faced because of the Electroplating Industries or some other polluting works, the Yamuna Cleaning Cell would have to take care of that.”
The Yamuna Cleaning Cell has been formulated keeping in mind an integrated approach for Yamuna Cleaning. The Cell will consist of six senior officials of the DJB, DUSIB, DSIIDC, DPCC and I & FC Department looking after Sewerage of JJ Clusters and Industrial Clusters, CETPs, industries violating pollution norms, Yamuna cleaning projects and in-situ treatment. These officers will report to the DJB CEO. These officers will also be responsible for the execution of the decisions taken by the Yamuna Cleaning Cell.
The YCC will further take over the responsibility of sewerage systems of JJ Clusters, Industrial Clusters and CETPs. It will also be jointly responsible for all the action points of Yamuna Cleaning that include- Construction of new STPS/DSTPs; Upgradation of existing STPs to the tune of 10/10 and capacity augmentation; Laying of sewerage network in 1799 Unauthorised Colonies; Septage Management; Desilting of Trunk/Peripheral Sewer lines; Providing Sewer Connections in already notified areas; Trapping of 108 no of drains under ISP; In-Situ Treatment of Drains.
