Chalo Yamuna Abhiyan: Delhi CM Rekha Gupta Leads Cleanliness Drive at ITO

By Political Bureau

New Delhi Chronicle

New Delhi: In a resolute push toward environmental restoration, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta spearheaded a major cleanliness initiative at Hathi Ghat near ITO on Sunday. Participating actively in the Chalo Yamuna Abhiyan, the Chief Minister joined hands with cabinet colleagues, local youths, social organizations, and residents to rid the Yamuna riverbanks of accumulated garbage and discarded ritual items.

Dressed for the ground-level campaign, CM Gupta rolled up her sleeves to personally pick up plastic waste and debris alongside volunteers. Addressing the gathering, she expressed serious concern over the mounting ecological threat posed by single-use plastics and discarded worship materials, including broken religious idols, left along the river banks.

“It is the fundamental moral responsibility of everyone who holds faith in the Yamuna to keep its waters and banks clean,” CM Gupta stated passionately. “We must turn our devotion to the river into an active act of service and preservation.”

Turning Devotion into Civic Duty

Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Chief Minister highlighted that thousands of conscientious Delhi residents mobilized across 70 different Yamuna ghats throughout the city to participate in the mega-drive.

Calling for a permanent mindset shift, Gupta urged citizens not to treat cleanliness as a sporadic campaign, but rather as a lifestyle choice. She appealed to Delhiites to step forward as ‘Yamuna Pramukhs’—ambassadors pledged to monitor ghat cleanliness and guide others away from littering plastic and puja (worship) offerings directly into the river system.

Multi-Pronged Strategy for River Rejuvenation

The high-profile cleanliness event saw active participation from key dignitaries, including Delhi Assembly Chief Whip and MLA Abhay Verma, prominent BJP leaders, local party workers, and representatives from various Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).

Beyond voluntary public drives, CM Gupta outlined the Delhi government’s broader policy blueprint to tackle the chronic pollution plaguing the river. She noted that authorities are aggressively deploying decentralised sewage treatment plants (STPs) to intercept and treat drain water before it flows into the Yamuna, alongside undertaking systematic desilting of major city drains.

Emphasizing that government infrastructure alone cannot solve the crisis, the Chief Minister concluded that long-term ecological restoration ultimately depends on sustained, community-led accountability at every single ghat across the capital.