Rekha Gupta Heads Large-Scale Clean-Up Campaign Along Yamuna River

Rekha Gupta along with her cabinet colleagues on Sunday led a large-scale cleanliness drive across 28 ghats of the Yamuna River , with the administration pitching the initiative as part of a broader effort to revive the polluted riverfront through sustained civic participation.

The campaign began at 6 AM and concluded at 10 AM , with the Chief Minister participating at the Geeta Colony riverfront stretch , where she stressed that public participation remains the “key” to restoring the Yamuna’s ecological health . She urged citizens to refrain from disposing of broken idols, cloth, and ritual offerings into the river, noting that such practices continue to add to the pollution burden.

Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra also joined the drive at the Yamuna Bank stretch , alongside party leaders and workers. Officials said the campaign saw participation from thousands of citizens , including volunteers from more than 500 social and religious organisations , marking one of the larger coordinated civic clean-up efforts in recent months.

The initiative reflects the Delhi government’s renewed push to combine administrative action with mass public engagement in tackling the long-standing pollution crisis in the Yamuna. While periodic drives have helped improve visibility of waste collection and riverfront sanitation in targeted stretches , environmental experts continue to note that such efforts have limited long-term impact unless sustained wastewater treatment, industrial discharge control, and sewage interception systems are strengthened upstream and within urban drains.

Officials maintain that repeated citizen-led campaigns are helping build behavioural awareness around ritual dumping and solid waste disposal , which remains a persistent contributor to river pollution. However, the overall ecological recovery of the Yamuna is still considered incremental , with challenges such as sewage inflow, encroachment along floodplains, and untreated industrial discharge continuing to strain cleanup outcomes.

The government has indicated that similar drives will continue as part of a longer-term river rejuvenation strategy , combining infrastructure upgrades with community participation to improve both water quality and riverfront cleanliness .