New Delhi, Apr 23 (PTI) The AAP government did not grant permission for the translocation of trees for the Rithala Phase-I sewage treatment plant, stalling the project and leading to discharge of untreated sewage into the Yamuna river, sources in the lieutenant governor's office said on Sunday.

The project was funded by the central government under the Yamuna Action Plan-III, they said.

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The files pertaining to it were pending with Delhi's minister of environment and forests for nearly two years, they claimed.

There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi.

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The matter came up for discussion in the recent meeting of a high-level committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the Yamuna rejuvenation.

"Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena expressed grave displeasure and annoyance over such deliberate misconduct on part of the Delhi government. The LG noted that nothing could be more criminal than poisoning the Yamuna by stalling such key projects," a source said.

The LG has issued instructions to identify the officers responsible for this deliberate misconduct and initiate strict action against them.

The LG has set the deadline of June 2023 for ensuring 95 per cent of sewage treatment before being discharged into the Yamuna. The LG was informed that the ongoing work on the Rithala Phase-I sewage treatment plant (STP) will be completed by June 2023.

The work of rehabilitation and upgradation of Rithala Phase-I wastewater treatment plant was awarded to a private firm, VA Tech Wabag Ltd., in June 2018 and was scheduled for completion in December 2021.

"However, the government deliberately kept sitting over two files for translocating over 500 trees for three years without assigning any justifiable reason. The LG was informed that the first file for tree translocation was kept pending for 17 months, while the second file related to it was pending for 20 months.

"The permission was granted only after interference of the Yamuna Monitoring Committee constituted by the NGT," the source added.

The upgradation/rehabilitation work could start only after July 2021, and is still pending completion. All this while, 40 MGD of untreated sewage kept getting criminally dumped by the DJB into the Yamuna, the source claimed.

According to the contract, the private firm which was already operating and maintaining the STP had taken over the Rithala Phase-I STP for rehabilitation in July 2018.

The firm was operating half portion only for sewage treatment while the remaining half portion was to be upgraded.

"The rehabilitation work of half portion could not be completed due to awaited permission for tree cutting from Delhi government and the delay was not on the part of M/s VA Tech Wabag Ltd...," the DJB observed.

The delay in approval resulted in the discharge of a massive 37,000 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Yamuna river since January 2020 till now, the source said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)