Rajya Sabha on Friday saw sharp exchanges between the Treasury and Samajwadi Party(SP) members when they charged the Central Government with trying to score political points over the issue of scarcity of water in UP and demanded an apology from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. Not satisfied with his clarification, SP members staged a walkout.
Raising the issue as soon as the House met for the day, SP leader Naresh Agrawal alleged that the Railway Minister gave a wrong statement on Thursday that the UP Government did not accept water train sent to parched Bundelkhand.
Agrawal said the State Government had not requested for a water train and was not informed that the Railways were dispatching a water train. Alleging that the Central Government was politicising the issue, the SP leader said the State Government had instead urged the Government to provide funds for borewells, hand pumps, digging fresh ponds and building dams in Bundelkhand. His party colleagues then stormed into the well raising slogans and demanding an apology from the Railways Minister while Agrawal claimed the train was did not carry water.
Prabhu refuted the charge of playing water politics and said he had talked to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday afternoon about the water train. The Minister also informed the House a steam-cleaned, 10-wagon train was on the way to fill water at Jhansi before going to the drought-hit areas.
Elaborating upon the need for steam cleaning, he said the process is a must for ferrying potable water and this facility is only available at Kota in Rajasthan. The Railways had earlier adopted this procedure to send water to latur in Maharashtra after steam cleaning at Kota and similar drill was followed for the water train bound for Bundelkhand.
Earlier, Sharad Yadav(JD-U) and Mayawati(BSP) said there was a serious water crisis and drought in Bundelkhand and no politics should be played on the issue by sending an empty water train. The BSP leader said 50 districts of UP were facing drought and both Central and State Governments should rise above party politics to resolve the crisis. Rajeev Shukla (Congress) said it was not appropriate for the Centre to send the water train without consulting the State Government.