The Hindu : New Delhi News : MLAs corner their own Ministers

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Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

MLAs corner their own Ministers

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 21. Internal rumblings in the Delhi Congress surfaced again today in the State Assembly as party MLAs repeatedly sought to corner the Ministers on various issues.

Question Hour itself saw the Development Minister, Raj Kumar Chauhan, and the Industries Minister, Mangat Ram Singhal, coming under scathing criticism and ridicule from their own party members, who for once seemed to be in unison with the Opposition.

First it was Mr Chauhan, who was targeted while he was answering questions posed by the Independent MLA from Badarpur, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri. As in reply to questions on the Delhi Rural Development Board, the Minister said in 2004-05 a sum of Rs 15 crores has been marked out for the development of villages and till February 28, a sum of Rs 6.95 crores had been spend, the MLA questioned why the amount of Rs 50 crores which had been earmarked under the Mini Master Plan for annual expenditure on the rural areas had been reduced to a mere Rs 2 crores and whether there was any plan to increase this amount.

As the Minister was unable to furnish a satisfactory reply, an apparently irked Mr Bidhuri brought the matter to the notice of the Chair. In between, Mr Chauhan said the Board, of which Mr Bidhuri was a member, could write to the Delhi Government about its needs and they would be looked into. However, to repeated questions on whether the amount was being raised and if sewer lines and shops were being planned in villages, he said the matter was "under consideration'', the Members soon began ridiculing this aspect.

Also during a question from Mr Mukesh Sharma on whether development of urban villages was being planned, when the Minister gave the same "under consideration'' reply, the Members could not help but chuckle. Even as the Minister was braving the sarcasm, his party MLA, Bheeshm Sharma, took him to task when he said that 26 villages in East Delhi were under the jurisdiction of the rural board. Countering this, Mr Sharma said there were only 24 villages in this party of the city.

Under attack from all sides, Mr Chauhan declared that the Rural Development Board had been set up on the lines of the Trans-Yamuna Development Board as across the Yamuna the development had picked up after the new Board was constituted. He said Delhi Government was considering village development in East Delhi through the Rural Development Board instead of the Trans-Yamuna Development Board. However, he gave more fodder to the Opposition when to Jagdish Mukhi's question on whether the Gramin Board would be given more teeth, he said it was "under consideration''. Mr Singhal on the other hand found the going tough as the Members repeatedly pestered him for not giving the correct replies.

As he furnished his reply to a question on closure and relocation of polluting units, first Jai Bhagwan Agarwal questioned him on why polluting units were still operating in Nand Nagri. To this the Minister had no answer and he said that while a survey of industrial units had been done, that had not classified the industries into polluting or non-polluting.

In all, he said, 20,588 units had been inspected and of them power and electricity supply of 2,742 had been disconnected while 488 had been sealed.

The Minister claimed that it was while acting on the Supreme Court's directions that the water and electricity supply of the polluting units had been stopped. He also declared that over 800 units had been desealed so that the owners could take out their properties. This evoked derision from former Industries Minister, H.S. Balli, who wondered how the number of desealed units could be more than that of the sealed ones.

The Congress MLA from Nasirpur, Mahabal Misra, also questioned the Minister on the issue of running of polluting units across the Capital. Though he asked if surveys had been done to identify and close them, the question went of nearly ignored.

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