The Delhi government will register an FIR once a designated committee submits its findings on a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that raised serious questions about sewage treatment expenditure and the functioning of the Delhi Jal Board under previous governments, Cabinet Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh announced on Monday, 17 August. Singh made the disclosure during a visit to Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Riverfront, where he and senior officials studied the riverfront's development model and its sewage-control mechanisms.

What the CAG Report Found

The CAG's Performance Audit on the functioning of the Delhi Jal Board, covering the period 2017-18 to 2021-22, documented a range of systemic failures. The audit found shortcomings in sewerage management, delays in project execution, and financial and human-resource management lapses.

Critically, the report recorded that 212.59 MGD of sewage generated by 1,080 unauthorised colonies was being discharged untreated into stormwater drains. Treated effluent released by 25 sewage treatment plants (STPs) into the Yamuna also failed to meet standards set by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

'The CAG had raised very serious questions, saying that the money was spent on sewage treatment plants, but those plants never operated properly and did not function at their intended capacity,' Singh said. 'Once the committee's report comes, an FIR will be registered based on it.'

Scale of the Yamuna Pollution Challenge

Official data underscores the enormity of the task. In a July 2025 reply, the Union government stated that Delhi's estimated sewage generation stood at 3,596 million litres per day (MLD), against an installed treatment capacity of 3,474 MLD across 37 operational STPs. At that point, approximately 641 MLD of sewage remained untreated and entered the river or drainage network, while 14 STPs were non-compliant with pollution control norms.

This comes amid sustained Central oversight: a review meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah in June called for detailed action plans, firm execution timelines for Yamuna rejuvenation projects, long-term maintenance arrangements, and progress reviews every 20 days.

Government's Parallel Cleanup and Riverfront Plan

Singh said the Delhi government was pursuing sewage treatment and riverfront development simultaneously, rather than waiting for the river to be fully cleaned before starting beautification. The Delhi Jal Board has begun constructing and upgrading STPs, with the government targeting closure of the existing sewage-treatment capacity gap within two years.

The government also plans to provide sewer connections to lakhs of households currently outside the sewer network within 18 months. Work on processing dairy waste has begun, and the Jal Board is preparing a scheme to collect septic waste from household tanks and route it to STPs for treatment.

The proposed Yamuna Riverfront is envisaged to include large parks, cycle tracks, ghats, recreational facilities, and sports grounds — with different departments working on each element simultaneously.

Sabarmati as a Blueprint — With Caveats

Singh said the Sabarmati Riverfront offered applicable lessons, noting that roughly 90 per cent of the challenges faced there were comparable to those on the Yamuna. However, he acknowledged that Delhi's larger population meant the required infrastructure would be on a significantly greater scale.

'The volume of sewage entering the Yamuna is higher, so we have to build more plants,' he said. He also pointed to the relocation of the Dhobi Ghat at Sabarmati as a model for reorganising pollution-generating activities along the Yamuna, including washermen who currently discharge waste directly into the river.

Singh noted that the Sabarmati project took 10-12 years to complete, but said the Delhi government expected residents to see a substantial difference in the Yamuna before the next state election. On Chhath Puja, he said designated ghats would continue to be provided along the Yamuna, citing that at least 10 lakh people celebrated the festival along the river last year.