NEW DELHI: CM Arvind Kejriwal had announced in Nov 2021 that he would rejuvenate the
Yamuna
and take a dip in the river in Feb 2025. However, the budget for 2024-25 makes no mention of the Yamuna, which continues to remain excessively contaminated. In fact, the issue related to the environment — air and water pollution and forests — found no reference in finance minister Atishi’s budget on Monday.
Though there was no mention of environmental issues, the budget speech underlined the state govt’s commitment to clean energy.
The budget allocated for forests and environment for 2024-25 is Rs 295 crore, while the amount in the last financial year was Rs 263 crore. The allocation might have been less last yar, but the Yamuna had got a special mention when then finance minister Kailash Gehlot committed to clean the river through a six-point action plan though he placed no deadlines for this. The plan included trapping major drains, stopping discharge of sewage into the river and 100% sewage treatment, among others. Even earlier, in the 2022-23 budget speech, then finance minister Manish Sisodia had assured that the Yamuna “will be completely clean in two years”.
These claims have remained far from reality and around 29% of the total sewage remains untreated. Even the portion being treated by the sewage treatment plants does not meet the expected standards. The river continues to be polluted and its water has tested terribly high for faecal coliform and has no dissolved oxygen, indicating that the river is virtually dead.
In the budget speech of 2023-24, Gahlot had announced that Delhi govt would deploy 11 mobile vans for monitoring real-time sources of air pollution in each district. Though the project for real-time source apportionment was started and a laboratory was set up on Rouse Avenue in Jan 2022, the mobile vans are yet to run in any of the districts.
When the budget for 2022-23 was presented by Sisodia, Delhi govt had proposed to establish the city’s first govt veterinary college for treatment of all types of animals. This commitment remains to be fulfilled. It had also been announced that over the next five years, govt was going to launch several initiatives to create more than one lakh green jobs, an intent that has not fructified.
Sunil Dahiya, South Asia analyst, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, commented, “Govt’s budget speech missing out on prioritising the environment and air pollution at a time when the city grabs attention as one of the most polluted cities in India is a missed opportunity. It could also have had huge potential to set national discourse, especially when the national elections are just around the corner. Specific allocations to strengthen Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the environment department while granting funds to set up a time-bound sectoral emission load reduction-based system for air quality improvement could have been crucial steps for Delhi.”
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