Barmer MP raises Balotra pollution issue in Lok Sabha
2
Jaisalmer: In a Zero Hour reference to rising pollution in Balotra, Lok Sabha MP from Barmer, Ummedaram Beniwal, accused the state govt of negligence, corruption and administrative failure in addressing the environmental crisis.
Beniwal said illegal factories in Balotra, Pali, and Jodhpur districts have blatantly violated environmental regulations, while toxic chemical water from these factories flooded fields, reservoirs, schools, homes, and even cremation grounds, submerging villages under two to three feet of polluted water.
The contamination, Beniwal alleged, rendered agricultural land barren, destroyed vegetation, killed livestock and wildlife, and disrupted daily life for thousands of villagers, he said.
Beniwal added that govt-run common effluent treatment plants (CEPT) and effluent treatment plants (ETP) exist only on paper and that these facilities have been non-functional for years, despite govt claims of their operation.
He accused the Rajasthan Pollution Control Board and state authorities of ignoring repeated orders from the high court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), and alleged that central govt investigation teams collude with corrupt officials and industrialists to produce misleading reports while pollution continues unchecked.
Beniwal warned that without immediate and strict action, the pollution crisis could escalate into a severe public health disaster.
He urged both central and state govts to prioritise the issue and take decisive steps to prevent further tragedy. The crisis has had direct impact on local communities. In Doli village, the govt high school was closed for 15 days due to chemical water flooding, raising concerns about building safety. After a villager's death on July 24, the cremation could not be performed because the cremation ground was waterlogged, leading villagers to block a highway in protest. In response, the administration ordered villagers to vacate their homes, shifting responsibility onto the affected residents. The situation is worsening in surrounding areas such as Araba, Melba, Dhawa, and Rajeshwar Nagar, where toxic water has accumulated in fields, public buildings, and homes. Beniwal warned that chemical waste from factories in Jodhpur, Pali, and Balotra is also polluting the historic Maruganga Luni River and its tributaries, endangering water sources and the region's biodiversity.
Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with
Friendship Day wishes
,
messages
and
quotes
!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Rahul Gandhi fires fresh salvo at EC, poll panel rebuts
The face-off between Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the Election Commission of India (ECI) intensified on Friday after the Congress leader rejected demands for a sworn affidavit on his charges of voter fraud in Karnataka and poll officials called the allegations absurd. LoP in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi addresses the party's 'Vote Adhikar Rally', in Bengaluru on Friday. (AICC) Gandhi on Thursday alleged that there were 100,250 'stolen' votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore (Central) parliamentary constituency that helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the seat in 2024, accusing ECI of 'colluding' with the ruling party. His presentation, which also included names of the voters involved, had prompted an immediate reaction from ECI, which had asked him to send a signed declaration and oath to the effect. On Friday, Gandhi dismissed the demand, saying he had already taken an oath on the Constitution in Parliament. He also reiterated his allegations about voter fraud in Maharashtra. Addressing the 'Vote Adhikar Rally' in Bengaluru, Gandhi alleged that ECI and BJP had worked together to manipulate voter rolls and hide evidence of large-scale irregularities in the 2024 elections. 'The Election Commission is asking me to submit an affidavit and give information under oath. But I have already taken an oath inside Parliament while holding the Constitution,' Gandhi told the crowd, accusing the poll body of withholding crucial records, including booth-level videography and electronic voter lists. He said these records were deliberately kept from scrutiny to cover up wrongdoing. 'The EC and BJP together have stolen the Lok Sabha from Karnataka,' he alleged. He said repeated requests for polling booth videos and electronic rolls were rejected and that the law was later amended to require videos be erased after 45 days. Gandhi linked his allegations to an internal Congress survey that had predicted the party would win 16 of the state's 28 Lok Sabha seats. The party won just nine. Gandhi listed five ways in which the alleged fraud took place: Creation of duplicate voters, fake or invalid addresses, bulk registrations at single addresses, unclear photographs, and misuse of Form 6 meant for first-time voters. In Delhi, the BJP mocked Gandhi's allegations. Union minister Bhupender Yadav accused Gandhi of using threatening language unbecoming of the Leader of Opposition. 'Those who keep raising questions about Maharashtra are the very ones -- Congress and its allies -- who won most of the seats where voter numbers increased. This alone discredits Rahul Gandhi's theory.' 'It was like the case of someone cutting the branch he is sitting on,' he said, accusing Gandhi of using arrogant and threatening language against ECI. Poll officials challenged Gandhi to either sign a formal declaration affirming his claims or apologise to the country. 'If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the declaration,' a senior ECI official said. 'If he does not sign the declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis and resultant conclusions and absurd allegations. In which case, he should apologise to the nation.' ECI also dismissed circulating claims that voter rolls from multiple states were taken down from its websites. 'Electoral rolls of all 36 states and Union Territories continue to be available for download on ECI said. Officials acknowledged that a few state websites had faced temporary outages but attributed these to routine technical issues. 'States control their own servers so sometimes the websites are down. It is a normal thing, but we checked and got them restored immediately,' a SECOND? official added. In his presser on Thursday, Gandhi had provided a break-up of the 'stolen' votes: 11, 965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid address, 10,452 voters who were part of groups of 60 or 70 voters with the same address; 4,132 voters with invalid photos; and 3, 692 voters who used Form 6. The last is primarily meant for new and first-time voters who do not find their names on the rolls, but Gandhi claimed many of those using this form were 95, 96, and 98 years old. In 2024, the BJP won the Bangalore Central seat by 32,707 votes. Gandhi claimed that while in all other assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress maintained a lead, it lost the seat as the BJP managed a lead of 114,000 votes in the Mahadevapura segment. Gandhi claimed that the BJP won the 2024 election narrowly. The Prime Minister is the PM with a slender majority and needed to 'steal' only 25 seats to stay in power, he added. In Bengaluru on Friday, Gandhi demanded that ECI release electronic voter lists and polling-day videography for the past decade across the country, claiming such disclosure would reveal 'the Prime Minister of India became PM by stealing votes.' Gandhi called the alleged manipulation 'a criminal act against the people of Karnataka' and urged the state government to investigate ECI officials who, he alleged, inserted thousands of fake names into the rolls. Gandhi also alleged that a similar pattern had occurred in Maharashtra, where the BJP won the assembly elections just four months after the Lok Sabha polls. 'We discovered that 1 crore new voters, who had not participated in the Lok Sabha polls, cast their votes in the Maharashtra assembly election,' he said, adding that these votes 'primarily went to the BJP,' and that 'wherever these new voters cast their ballots, the BJP won.' Chief minister Siddaramaiah echoed Gandhi's charges, demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resignation. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said Gandhi wanted 'legal banks' to be established to protect voters' rights at the booth level, assuring that such a mechanism would be set up on the lines of blood banks. BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra dismissed the allegations, calling Gandhi a 'desperate leader' who had failed to earn the public's trust.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Will back any party standing against SIR: Abhishek
Kolkata: With protests against the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar bringing INDIA bloc parties closer together, national general secretary said on Friday that TMC will stand by any party that will support them on the SIR issue and against the deprivation of Bengal. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "If someone walks one step for us, we will also walk one step for them. Our priority is Bengal. In the current scenario, we will stand by those political parties which will stand by us on SIR and Bengal's deprivation. That can be Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena or Samajwadi Party. We don't have any ego. We're fighting the autocratic BJP together," said Banerjee told reporters at the Kolkata airport. "Those who say 'Yes SIR' and have sold an institution like ECI, we are saying 'No SIR'," he added. The multiparty INDIA bloc, formed ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, had largely reverted to state-specific agendas following the elections. Congress was targeting BJP mostly independently, without coordinating with other bloc members. But the SIR issue seems to have brought parties within the bloc on common ground again, with Congress's Rahul Gandhi hosting a dinner on Thursday where opposition bloc members discussed their strategy against SIR. Asked about discussions at the dinner, Banerjee said, "All parties of the INDIA bloc unanimously condemned the way ECI is functioning and acting on the directions of BJP. " Bengal Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar said, "If it is a question of securing the interests of Bengal and protecting Bengalis, the entire opposition will stay together. BJP is trying to create a civil war by dividing people on linguistic lines and this is not happening in Bengal alone." Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Congress and Trinamool have protested against SIR and attacks on Bengali migrant workers in other states. Congress is ready to unite forces against BJP and take it to the streets of Bengal," he said, clarifying however that his comments "should not be construed as a prologue to any equation before the polls". Banerjee said, "SIR is a tool to disenfranchise the poor", adding that a "section of the Commission" was functioning under BJP influence. "If even one Bengali's name is excluded, we will gherao the Election Commission with one lakh people," he warned, while questioning the pace at which the revision process was being conducted. He said that the last SIR was done in 2002 and the updated list was published in 2004, adding, "Now they want to finish it in one or two months. If current voter list is faulty, then the last election was invalid, and so are positions of PM and home minister." (With inputs from Rohit Khanna)
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Monsoon session: New version of I-T bill to be tabled on Monday
NEW DELHI: Govt will introduce a fresh version of the Income Tax bill on Monday, incorporating the recommendations of the Select Committee of Parliament. The new bill was approved by the cabinet on Friday as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman withdrew earlier version of the I-T bill 2025, which was introduced in Lok Sabha in Feb this year. The revised bill could have been introduced in Parliament on Friday itself, but it could not be done as disruptions forced the House to be adjourned by the time presidential assent was received. "To avoid confusion by multiple versions of the bill and to provide a clear and updated version with all changes incorporated, the new version of the Income Tax Bill will be introduced for the consideration of the House on Monday," sources said. The Select Committee of Lok Sabha headed by BJP's Baijayant Panda had examined the IT Bill 2025 and adopted the report on the draft legislation last month. The Parliamentary panel had suggested 285 recommendations on the draft legislation, aimed at simplifying and modernising the country's tax laws. The IT Bill 2025 was tabled in Parliament on Feb 13 and was aimed at simplifying the language and structure of the Income Tax Act 1961. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Unleash Your Green Thumb: 15 Hacks Every Gardener Needs to Know! Kingdom Of Men Undo It was sent to the Select Committee for examination. The bill will replace the six decade old Income Tax Act 1961. The simplification exercise was guided by three core principles, which included textual and structural simplification for improved clarity and coherence, no major tax policy changes to ensure continuity and certainty and no modification of tax rates, which is aimed at preserving predictability for taxpayers, an official statement had said. CBDT chairman Ravi Agrawal in an interview to TOI last month had said that the provisions of law will become far more simpler for any taxpayer to read and understand. He had said the dependence on a professional to understand the law is expected to see some correction. "The use of formulae, tables and consolidation of provisions will enable easier compliance for taxpayers and professionals," Agrawal had added. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays , public holidays , current gold rate and silver price .
