New Delhi: The discovery of dead fish floating in the Yamuna near Delhi's Sonia Vihar has triggered a political confrontation ahead of Chhath Puja, with Delhi ministers accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of dumping the fish to discredit the government, while the opposition has questioned whether pollution caused the deaths.
The exact cause of the fish deaths remains unconfirmed.
Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma accused AAP of staging the incident, alleging that party members had bought dead fish from the market and thrown them into the river to defame the government.
“I am seeing dirty politics by AAP. They are buying dead fish from the market and putting them in the river and posting videos to defame us,” Verma said.
He claimed that officials had informed him that people were dumping dead fish into the river a day after ferry services began operating on the Yamuna. Verma also alleged that AAP was attempting to disrupt the atmosphere ahead of Chhath Puja, scheduled for November 15 and 16.
The minister said an investigation would be conducted to identify those responsible and establish whether they had links to AAP workers.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa also accused AAP and its leaders of arranging the dumping of dead fish and recording videos of them.
In a video statement, Sirsa said the alleged incident was intended to undermine the government's efforts to clean the river and the launch of the Namo Yamuna River Safari cruise service.
“The BJP under the leadership of Rekha Gupta achieved a milestone by cleaning 60 per cent of the Yamuna. Now that a cruise service is operating on the river, they [Kejriwal and his associates] are so distressed that they are having people from across Delhi go there, bring dead fish from the market, and film videos with them,” Sirsa said.
He also criticised the alleged dumping of dead fish ahead of Chhath Puja, when devotees are expected to gather along the river to offer prayers.
Sirsa's remarks followed claims by officials of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department that unidentified people were dumping dead fish into the Yamuna to tarnish the Delhi government's image.
Somnath Kashyap, executive engineer in the department, wrote to the Station House Officer of Sonia Vihar Police Station, requesting the registration of an FIR and an investigation to identify those responsible.
The letter said the alleged activity was intended to damage the government's reputation and hurt the religious sentiments of devotees expected to visit the Chhath ghats on November 15 and 16.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj rejected the allegations and accused the BJP government of trying to shift responsibility for the fish deaths.
“First of all, the Delhi government lied by claiming that it had cleaned the Yamuna. Anyone who knows about the Yamuna is aware that the stretch from Palla, where it enters Delhi, up to Wazirabad, including Sonia Vihar, has always been relatively clean,” Bharadwaj told reporters.
He questioned whether the fish had died because of pollution or the release of a harmful chemical into the river and asked the government to take responsibility for identifying the cause.
Bharadwaj also rejected the allegation that AAP had dumped the fish, questioning how the party could have sourced thousands of dead fish.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) separately submitted a complaint to Delhi Police seeking an FIR against individuals allegedly spreading misinformation about chemical dumping in the river.
The complaint said unidentified people were circulating claims on social media that chemicals were being sprayed into the Yamuna, disturbing aquatic life. It also referred to the upcoming Chhath festival and the expected presence of large numbers of devotees along the river.
Some residents alleged that polluted water discharged from a leather tannery was responsible for the fish deaths. They claimed the problem recurs when water is released into the river from a location near the Hathnikund Barrage.
“There is a tannery and the water released from there is polluted. The fish die because of that. There were several dead fish on Wednesday and also on Thursday. They died because of the polluted water,” a local resident said.
The incident comes less than a month after hundreds of dead fish were found along the Yamuna riverbank in north Delhi's Burari.
At the time, Radhey Shyam Sharma, head of environmental studies at Delhi University, said sudden mass deaths of fish could indicate a sharp increase in contaminants in the water or a toxic discharge.
Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), also flagged industrial pollution as a possible cause, citing untreated effluents entering the river through drains in Haryana and restricted environmental flows.
“Back-to-back mass fish deaths in this relatively cleaner stretch of the Yamuna are alarming. Laboratory testing is the first essential step towards identifying the cause and deciding remedial action,” Rawat said.
He criticised government agencies, including the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Delhi Jal Board and Irrigation and Flood Control Department, for what he described as a failure to carry out basic testing.
Experts said the exact cause and source of the fish deaths could only be established through an investigation and water-quality testing.
The latest incident comes after Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated a cruise service on the Yamuna between Sonia Vihar and Jagatpur on Wednesday.
The service, developed to promote river tourism, covers a stretch of 4-5 km. Each ride costs Rs 500 and lasts approximately 40 minutes.
The competing allegations come as Delhi prepares for Chhath Puja, with the cause of the fish deaths yet to be established.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)