The Delhi Congress has blamed Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the deteriorating conditions in the national capital. Devender Yadav, President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, stated that it has become an annual “ritual” for the AAP government to launch cleanliness drives ahead of festival seasons, attempting to clear months’ worth of accumulated garbage. However, these efforts lose momentum after an initial burst of activity, with the city soon returning to its unclean state.
Yadav criticized Mayor Shelly Oberoi, noting that if she had acted proactively to keep the city garbage-free throughout the year, Delhi could have avoided recurring problems like waterlogging, which is caused by clogged drains and sewers filled with trash. He stressed that maintaining a clean and green Delhi is the responsibility of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), but like Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Atishi, and other AAP leaders, Mayor Oberoi has engaged in blame games, attributing the garbage problem to irresponsible dumping by contractors and citizens, rather than acknowledging the MCD’s failure to collect and dispose of garbage in a timely manner.
Yadav also recalled that ahead of the MCD elections on December 4, 2022, Kejriwal had urged voters to support candidates committed to the city’s development, not those who hinder it. Kejriwal presented “10 guarantees” to improve Delhi, with the first being the promise to beautify the city and eliminate garbage dumps. He had assured that handling garbage disposal was not “rocket science.” However, Yadav lamented that the city has only become filthier under AAP’s rule, as the MCD’s functioning has been stalled by numerous litigations. He added that Mayor Oberoi has exceeded her term in office, and no election has been held for the Standing Committee chairman, despite AAP being in power for nearly two years.
Yadav further pointed out that while Kejriwal visited the landfill sites at Okhla, Bhalswa, and Ghazipur, vowing to flatten them swiftly, the garbage mountains have only grown taller under AAP’s governance.
