Sanctions not to affect drinking water schemes: Anna Dange

The minister said that all these schemes were still in progress and were not affected by the sanctions. "Neither the Union Government nor any of the country/bank providing financial assistance for these schemes have asked the State Government to stop implementing them," Dange said.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN: Revenue Minister Narayan Rane today assured the State Legislature that the Disaster Management Plan (DMP) drafted by the State Government would be implementedwithin six months.

Rane said the DMP could not yield expected results last month, when heavy showers flooded the streets of Mumbai, because the amount of rainfall was much more than what the drainage system could handle.

However, Rane’s reply failed to satisfy the Opposition and Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had to intervene to explain. "The flooding in Mumbai during monsoon is a multi-faceted problem. The railway tracks are flooded because the garbage along the lines is not cleared properly. The roads get flooded because the existing drainage line is not wide enough. We are planning to widen it. We have approached the World Bank and the Union Urban Development department to assist the Rs 600 crore project to widen the existing drainage line," Joshi said.

POLLUTANT VEHICLES: Transport Minister Diwakar Raote today told the State Legislature that the number of vehicles in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, and Nashik has increased by 67.04 per cent since 1991, and this was one of the main reasons forair pollution.

Raote, in a written reply to a question by Ashok Modak, Prakash Javadekar, and other members in the Council, said the government checked 39,75,973 vehicles between 1993 and March 1998, and collected over Rs 2 crore from vehicle owners who were not maintaining air pollution norms. In another special vehicle check-up operation done in October 1997, the government collected Rs 6.80 lakh, the minister said.

FOOD AND CIVIL SUPPLY: Opposition members in the Council demanded to know why the State Government had asked the Centre for 1,11,000 tonnes of wheat, rice and 10,000 litre of edible oil, less than the previous year.

Vasant Chavan raised the question and said the State’s population had increased and hence, the State should have asked for an additional quantity of food. Badge explained that the State Government had reduced the quantity of foodgrain issued on the ration card from 10 kg to 8 kg per unit, and hence there was a decrease in the demand. This, however, failed to satisfy themembers, who blamed the government for not handling the food and civil supplies department properly.

POLITICAL CYCLONE:

Congress member Arun Gujarathi asked if the Disaster Management Plan could handle the situation if a cyclone hit Mumbai. Before Joshi or Rane could answer, Congress member Dilip Walse-Patil shouted whether the DMP was capable of handling the situation if a political cyclone hit Mumbai, and sent waves of laughter through the House and the galleries. Before Rane could get up and answer, Joshi sprang up and said, "The DMP is capable of handling the cyclone, and the chief minister is capable enough of taking care of any kind of political cyclone."

Rane’s embarrassing moment

Desmond Yates, the Anglo-Indian MLA appointed by the Governor, asked Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, when the DMP would be implemented. Rane could not understand the question in English and requested Yates to repeat the question. Yates repeated the question but in English and this time, Rane pretendedthat he could not hear. So, he requested Yates to repeat the question yet again. Yates repeated the question loud and clear for the third time but it was in English, and Rane was far from understanding it. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, who was watching Rane fumble and other MLAs laugh, came to the rescue of the latter and answered in English. Rane, who was listening to Joshi’s answer carefully, managed to repeat two words loudly — "Six months, six months!"