Thousands of volunteers joined government agencies to clean the Yamuna and its banks at 70 locations across Delhi on Sunday, as the Rekha Gupta government expanded its Chalo Yamuna Campaign and called for sustained public participation to tackle river pollution.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta took part in the drive and urged residents to become “Yamuna Praharis”, saying that protecting the river would require changes in everyday behaviour alongside government interventions. “Cleanliness is not just a campaign but a way of life. Ensuring that no waste reaches the Yamuna is our collective responsibility,” Gupta said.
The clean-up teams found clothes offered to deities, damaged idols, puja materials, plastic wrappers and other waste in and around the river. Gupta appealed to residents not to dump religious offerings or other waste at the ghats, and said public participation was essential alongside government action.
The chief minister said the Delhi government was working on multiple fronts, including setting up sewage treatment plants and decentralised treatment facilities, intercepting drains that discharge into the Yamuna and desilting drains across the capital. The measures are aimed at addressing waste and polluted water entering the river in addition to removing solid waste from its banks and surface.
PWD and Water Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh participated in the activity downstream of the Old Railway Bridge. He said trash skimmers and weed harvesters were operating in the river, while more than 250 PWD maintenance vans and hundreds of Municipal Corporation of Delhi vehicles were deployed along the banks.
“Together, we removed hundreds of tonnes of waste in a single day,” Singh said, adding that river and bank cleaning had become regular work rather than a one-day exercise. He expressed confidence that Delhi would see a clean Yamuna in the next two to three years.
The scale of the operation brought together several parts of Delhi’s urban administration. PWD teams, municipal vehicles and equipment operating in the river were deployed alongside volunteers, while the government’s stated plans focus on sewage treatment, drain management and desilting. The campaign therefore combined immediate waste removal with measures the administration said were intended to reduce future pollution flows.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta joined volunteers at Shyam Ghat-3 and called for continued public involvement in restoring the river. “We have failed the river that has sustained us for generations; restoring the Yamuna is our collective responsibility,” he said.
The Speaker said lasting improvement would require sewage treatment, control of industrial waste and effective action against polluted water entering through drains. Young volunteers were awarded appreciation certificates as “Swachh Yamuna Praharis”, with the chief minister urging them to mobilise communities and continue the campaign beyond individual cleanliness drives.
The government’s next stated steps include continuing river and bank cleaning, expanding sewage treatment and decentralised treatment facilities, intercepting polluting drains and desilting drains across Delhi. The administration has also called for ongoing public participation in the campaign.
