The Lok Sabha witnessed an uproar on Wednesday after BJP MP Tejasvi Surya blamed the Wayanad landslides on the Congress and Left governments that have been in power in Kerala, attributing the tragedy to “unbridled commercial activity” in the eco-sensitive areas of the Western Ghats.
“The landslides in Wayanad have taken the lives of 160 innocent people. Over the last five years, more than 350 people have died in landslides and other disasters in Kerala. Unbridled, unregulated commercial activity including quarrying and mining in the eco-sensitive areas of Western Ghats is the primary reason for this. Many reports were submitted earlier which were rejected successively by the UDF and LDF governments in Kerala in the last so many years. There has been no solution thought about regulation of the commercialisation of this eco-sensitive zone,” the Bangalore South MP said as he spoke shortly after Aviation Minister Ramamohan Naidu introduced a Bill from his ministry.
Congress and Left MPs objected to Surya’s comments and Congress MP K C Venugopal said the BJP MP was trying to politicise a tragedy.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju then stood up and said, “This is mistaken. Honourable member (Surya) is not aware of it. Honourable member Mr Venugopal ji made a request that many members from Kerala and other states too want to speak on the tragic incident that happened in Kerala. The government agreed. We went to the Speaker and he agreed for a time for Calling Attention Motion today. The honourable member is not aware and so I am informing the House. The discussion will start around 3 pm which will be informed to the House.”
Venugopal said, “This issue was raised by the Leader of the Opposition itself in the House yesterday. There is no word to describe what happened in Wayanad. People are (buried) inside the soil even now. Lot many bodies have been recovered. We do not want to politicise this issue. Yesterday we said we wanted a response from the Government. Central agencies and state agencies are all doing rescue work. It is very unfortunate that a member from the treasury benches is politicising the issue. We are all praying for saving lives. You allowed him to speak. There is no Zero Hour today.”
The chair then allowed Surya to speak briefly again and he said, “I come from Chikmagalur. Thousands of farmers in the region are also affected by landslides. Areca nut and coffee growers have lost crops worth thousands of crores (of rupees). Till today, the Karnataka Congress government has not given any compensation.”
This again led to protests from by the Opposition benches.
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