Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva was admitted to the RML Nursing Home on Saturday with complaints of itching and breathing difficulties, two days after he took a dip in the heavily-polluted Yamuna to highlight the alleged failure of the AAP government to clean the river.
On Thursday, Sachdeva took a dip in the Yamuna at the Chhath Ghat and slammed former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his "failure" to fulfil his promise to clean the river by 2025.
After taking the dip, Sachdeva faced skin rashes and slight discomfort in breathing for which he was examined at the RML Hospital where the doctors prescribed him medicines for three days.However, on Saturday morning, the BJP leader was admitted to the RML Nursing Home after he complained of itching and breathlessness. He doesn't have any past history of similar problems, Delhi BJP media cell said in a statement.
New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj, addressing a press conference said the Kejriwal’s government has done nothing except politicize the issue for the past decade. Once BJP comes to power, a Yamuna Cleanliness Tribunal will be set up to ensure continuous cleaning efforts. Media Head Praveen Shankar Kapoor added that AAP seems so rattled by Sachdeva’s Yamuna dip that they have resorted to labeling public protests as attacks.He warned AAP leaders who are dismissing the dip as mere drama that this act has become the key to political change in Delhi, as the issue of the Yamuna cleanliness scam is now at the forefront of public discussion.
Wishing Sachdeva a speedy recovery, senior AAP leader and Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that BJP leaders should now realise that their "theatrics" will not clean the river.
On Thursday, Sachdeva "apologised" to Yamuna for the AAP government's "failure" in cleaning its water, promising to form a separate authority for its rejuvenation if the BJP wins the Assembly elections scheduled in Delhi next year. The politics over Yamuna intensified in Delhi after a layer of toxic froth appeared on the river surface due to heavy contents of pollutants, leading to a squabble between the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP.
The war of words has become even more intense in view of the upcoming Chhath festival that is widely celebrated in Delhi-NCR by the Purvanchali people.
Before the imposition of a ban, a large number of women used to gather along the banks of Yamuna during Chhath to worship the Sun god in knee-deep waters of the river. The AAP leaders have been claiming that the toxic froth in Yamuna at Kalindikunj has been caused by the release of millions of gallons of untreated industrial waste-water into the river from drains in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, both BJP-ruled states.
