The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday escalated its attack on the BJP government over the Yamuna’s pollution levels ahead of Chhath puja, with the party’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj challenging Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to drink water from the river to prove her claims that it had been cleaned.

This comes after Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma on Saturday said the Yamuna’ water quality ahead of Chhath was better than last year. “The faecal coliform bacteria concentration in the Yamuna has come down to 7,900 units per 100 ml at Nizamuddin this year, from 11 lakh units per 100 ml last year”, Verma said.