New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS): Delhi Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena on Tuesday chaired the third meeting of the high-level committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal for the cleaning of the Yamuna river, an official said.

According to an official, after the first meeting on January 20 and the second meeting on February 14, the third meeting on Tuesday deliberated upon the progress made so far on the cleaning of the river, and the ways ahead that could be adopted.

The Raj Niwas in a statement said the meeting held in the open in the Asita East developed on the floodplains of Yamuna by the Delhi Development Authority was a testimony to the efforts being undertaken to clean the Yamuna.

Addressing the officials, L-G Saxena said that it was owed to the future generations that we handed over a clean Yamuna to them, "a Yamuna that our forefathers had inherited".

Besides, criticising the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the statement read: "Gross inaction and neglect on part of the DJB which had not undertaken any desilting/cleaning work for the past 8-10 years had resulted in the sewer lines getting choked. Now that the desilting exercise has started, it was coming to light that the sewer lines were choked up to 80-90 per cent than the earlier expected 40-50 per cent.

"Apart from sewage waste that is meant to go into the sewer lines, they were choked with boulders, municipal solid waste, etc. due to manholes being left open and unattended," the statement read.

The meeting also discussed achieving the goal of 100 per cent treatment of sewage, the gaps thereof and the way forward to be undertaken by DJB, trapping of all 242 drains on record and 238 drains that were not on the record.

The meeting was also attended by senior officials from Central and state government.