Date:28/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122856630400.htm

New Delhi

Polluted water, Blueline issues raised in House

Staff Reporter

“Treatment plants have closed due to contaminated water”

NEW DELHI: The issue of large parts of Delhi being supplied water having a high content of carcinogenic ammonia was raised in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday by Nationalist Congress Party leader and Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

Making a special mention under Rule 280, he said release of such contaminated water by Haryana had led to closure of the water treatment plants and this had caused an acute water shortage in certain areas.

Mr. Bidhuri demanded that the Delhi Government make public the details of any communication, if any, it might have had with the Haryana Government over the issue.

Also speaking under Rule 280, BJP MLA from Saket Vijay Jolly demanded that urgent steps be taken to rein in the Blueline buses which had killed a large nmber of people on the Capital’s roads. He said the death of a student of Delhi Public School on Wednesday was another grim reminder of the threat that lurks in the Delhi.

Congress MLA Bheeshm Sharma also made a special mention to demand beautification of all the entry points of Delhi.

Earlier, during the day’s proceedings, Congress MLA Kiran Walia urged Social Welfare Minister Yoganand Shastri to initiate steps for removing a particular clause that was coming in the way of providing an unemployment allowance to a large number of disabled persons. She said due to the condition that stipulates that all beneficiaries need to be registered with the Unemployment Exchange for at least two years, no one in her constituency had been able to avail of the scheme.

Distribution system

During the course of the proceedings, Education Minister Arvinder Singh replying to questions pertaining to the public distribution system had admitted that a first-come-first-served policy on the basis of districts had been followed while making the Antodaya cards which constitute 30 per cent of all below poverty line (BPL) cards.

This led to demand by Mr. Bidhuri of making Antodaya cards on the basis of their requirement in each Assembly segment.