Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma said on October 15 that the quality of water in the Yamuna River ahead of the Chhath festival has improved compared to last year. Citing official data on faecal coliform bacteria levels, the minister claimed that the concentration of faecal coliform bacteria at Nizamuddin had fallen significantly, from 11 lakh units per 100 millilitres last year to 7,900 units this year.

Likewise, he said that the count at Palla dropped from 920 to 600 units, at Wazirabad from 16,000 to 800, and at ITO from 35,000 to 7,000. Addressing a joint press conference with Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Verma said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee collected water samples from eight sites along the Yamuna including Palla, Wazirabad Barrage, ITO, Okhla Barrage and

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