'It was Yamuna water': Delhi CM breaks silence on 'clean' Vasudev Ghat Chhath enclosure row

DElhi Chief government minister Rekha Gupta addressed the arguing of ‘ strip’ irrigate in a pool at Vasudev Ghat during Chhath Puja this year, and took a jibe at the former regimes of the Opposition for having stopped the celebrations of the festival.Speaking at the 23rd edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Gupta, responding to a question on the pond controversy at Vasudev Ghat, said, "The Opposition just wants to create a story. Eleven years they governed the city, stopped celebrations of Chhath and did not recognise that the faith of thousands of people is attached to it." Follow HTLS 2025 LIVE UpdatesIn contrast to the Opposition, CM Gupta said that her government made facilities for Chhath Puja facilities at 13,500 spots across the national capital.She said that the administration made careful provisions, including barricades, to prevent any damage to the area or the overflow of the river's water. "Similarly, a provision was done on Vasudev Ghat. The area near the river was very muddy, so tonnes of mud were removed from there."CM Gupta said that the pool, which was made as a result, carried the water of the Yamuna River. Unlike the opposition's claim of the enclosure having clean water, it was Yamuna water.The political rhetoric escalated over Chhath Puja in Delhi, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government of constructing an “artificial Yamuna” with “filtered water” at Vasudev Ghat.AAP Delhi head Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that the BJP had “built a fake Yamuna” by secretly filling a small stream at Vasudev Ghat with filtered water from the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant, which supplies Delhi’s drinking water.The BJP dismissed the allegations, calling them “political drama” and claiming that the opposition was objecting to cleanliness efforts at the riverbank.Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the BJP government had completed basic cleaning of the Yamuna in eight months and made natural ghats available for devotees.Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was among the key speakers on the final day of the three-day Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. The 23rd edition of HTLS, under the theme of "Transforming Tomorrow", is a stage which offers fresh ideas to share the current discourse and for a better future.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, actors Hugh Grant, Aamir Khan, and several others are the key speakers of the final day of HTLS 2025.