Yamuna Cleaning Project: Territorial Army Deployed To Clean River Withdrawn

TA is a company which was deployed under Yamuna Cleaning Project to clean the river but, it has now been called off.

The Territorial Army (TA) company which was assigned to protect and clean the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi has been withdrawn. The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) allowed TA earlier this year to boost river cleaning efforts. In a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) said that the "Territorial Army (has been) withdrawn with effect from June 30," as reported by news agency PTI.

A senior NMCG official while talking to PTI said that TA has been working for the NMCG in Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj as well, however, in Delhi, it was just temporarily deployed. The official said, "It was temporarily deployed for the Yamuna cleaning work in Delhi. This company was brought to Delhi to create awareness among the people... to prevent dumping of waste into the Yamuna. It was a small special drive and it's over now."

The DPCC in its report said that following the TA's withdrawal, immediate alternate measures need to be put in place. The report read, "In addition, a separate proposal of raising a new 3 company based TA battalion for Yamuna and Najafgarh Drain in Delhi needs to be taken up with NMCG. The new battalion can be on the lines of 137 ECO TA Battalion located at Prayagraj for Ganga, funded by NMCG as a central government asset."

Another NMCG official, who is aware of the development, while talking to PTI said that it will be difficult to accommodate a request for a TA battalion for the Yamuna. The official suggested the city government to deploy civil defence volunteers for this purpose.

The TA company so far had worked on the ground level. It had helped remove floating material in the river, and prevent the dumping of waste, as reported by PTI. The company also monitored critically vulnerable pollution hotspots through static posts. It also used to patrol the entire stretch by foot, vehicle and boats. 

A 22 Km stretch of Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla area accounts for around 75 per cent of the whole pollution load on the river. Notably, this stretch is less than two per cent of the river length. The main reasons behind such high pollution in the river are- Untapped wastewater from unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, poor quality treated wastewater that gets discharged from sewage treatment plants (STPs), and common effluent treatment plants (CETPs).

The Delhi government has promised to clean the Yamuna to bathing standards by February 2025.