Days after he filed a complaint against BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma and Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga for “obstructing discharge of official duty and criminal intimidation”, Delhi Jal Board Director, Treatment and Quality Control, Sanjay Sharma took bath in the Yamuna water after defoamer was sprayed into the river.
A controversy broke out over the spraying of the defoamer chemical ahead of the Chhath puja in an attempt to get rid of the foam that develops on the surface of the river.
On Sunday, Sharma collected water from the river and took a bath on the banks, seemingly in a bid to prove that there was nothing hazardous in the defoamer that was being sprayed.
#Watch | DJB official Sanjay Sharma takes a bath using Yamuna water at Kalindi Kunj, a day after filing a complaint against BJP leaders Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga who yelled at him over the spraying of a defoamer in the river.
📹 @abhinavsaha pic.twitter.com/hibhseq9y0— Express Delhi-NCR (@ieDelhi) October 30, 2022
On Friday, Verma yelled at a DJB official over the spraying of a defoamer in the Yamuna near the Okhla barrage. On the video, Verma was heard telling the official: “Tere sar pe daal doon yeh chemical? Tum yahan pe chemical daal do paani mein aur yahan pe log lagayenge dubki, yeh main tere sar par daal doon? (You will spray the chemical in the water here and people will come to take a dip in the water. I’ll pour this over your head?)”
In the video, Verma was also heard calling the official a “besharam, ghatiya aadmi” (shameless person).
Sharma was then seen explaining that the chemical is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that spraying was also approved by the National Mission for Clean Ganga.
A DJB official had earlier told The Indian Express, “The product has been approved by the US FDA as a defoamer. Various types of defoamers are available in the market. This is a polyoxypropylene-based defoamer, and it is not poisonous. It is easily available in the market. If something poisonous is sprayed in the water, the biggest effect is usually on the dissolved oxygen, which reduces. Before spraying, the dissolved oxygen in the Yamuna was 3.96 mg/litre. Now, after spraying, it is 4.8 mg/litre, which means it does not affect the river’s ecology.”
The reason behind the foaming is usually the presence of phosphates from detergents and anaerobic bacteria in the water that falls from a height at the Okhla barrage, the official said. The agitation of the water when it falls from a height produces the foam. The defoamer neutralises the phosphates, he said.
