Rajya Sabha witnesses uproar over discussion on pollution in Delhi
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed brief disruptions during the debate on pollution in Delhi and other parts of the country. Members from the BJP and the opposition led by the AAP and supported by Congress, SP and others were involved in heated exchanges for around 10 minutes, when Rajya Sabha assembled after lunch to discuss about rising pollution levels.
After Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar read his statement informing about the steps taken by the Centre on the issue, BJP member Vijay Goel alleged that the Delhi government is not taking proper action to tackle pollution.
He also alleged corruption by the Delhi government in distributing 50 lakh masks among the people and said the residents of the national capital are also forced to drink bottled water as tap water was not safe.
Goel displayed clippings of newspapers with advertisements of air purifiers and also displayed mini oxygen cylinder.
This was opposed by AAP members Sanjay Singh and Sushil Gupta. They were supported by other opposition parties including Congress, SP and others. Goel was also asked by the Rajya Sabha Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh to stop it.
"You are doing wrong. You cannot display this one. This is not the conduct of an honourable member. You cannot do it without permission of the chair," said Singh.
Singh then called Manoj Kumar Jha to speak on the issue but his speech was interrupted by Goel who kept on speaking and exhibiting clippings with the mini cylinder.
After this, heated words were exchanged between members from BJP and the opposition.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan tried to pacify the house by saying that the government wants a serious debate on the issue and requested the members to put their point only when their turn come.
Meanwhile, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray of AITC read out a point of order from the rule book, which said that when council of state is sitting and a member is speaking, he should not be interrupted by others. After that, Jha resumed his speech and the house returned to normalcy.
