LS member demands Bharat Ratna for litterateur late Annabhau Sathe

New Delhi: A strong demand was made in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday for awarding the Bharat Ratna to noted litterateur Annabhau Sathe, who is known for his contribution to folk arts.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress member Varsha Gaikwad said Sathe whose 104th birth anniversary falls on August 1 had written 35 novels, 10 screenplays, 24 short stories, 10 ballads, also called 'powada' in Marathi, and a travelogue on Russia.

Sathe's novel Fakira received a Maharashtra government award in 1961, Gaikwad said, adding he used his stories to amplify the life experiences of Dalits and the working class.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said safety in railways has now become a challenge and accidents were taking place every other day.

Bandyopadhyay's remarks came on a day when Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed in Jharkhand.

"Safety in railways has now become a challenge. Everyday accidents are taking place, I was the chairman of the Standing Committee on Railways for the past many years. Again and again I had mentioned railways should have safety first and now it (accidents) is happening regularly," he said.

BJP member from Nainital, Ajay Bhatt, demanded that the government give a special grant to Uttarakhand to upgrade the firefighting equipment and make appointments in the Department of Fire Services to tackle the growing incidents of forest fires.

Shiv Sena-UBT member Sanjay Dina Patil wanted the government to ensure that no wetlands or saltpan lands are diverted to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project undertaken by a prominent businessman in Mumbai.

Patil, who represents Mumbai North East in the Lok Sabha, said 250 acres of salt lands were sought for the Dharavi project and another 75 acres have been sought from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

"Any construction that happens on the salt lands will affect the environment. I request you with folded hands not to give the land to the businesshouse," Patil said.

BJP member from Bhopal, Alok Sharma, wanted Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav to speed up the process of disposal of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant where a gas leak on December 2, 1984 had affected lakhs of people across generations.

He said the Central government had allocated Rs 126 crore for disposal of 336 metric tonnes of toxic waste lying at the Union Carbide factory premises in Bhopal.

Sharma said one year had passed and 336 metric tonnes of waste was still lying there.

Shiv Sena-UBT member Arvind Sawant wanted every minister of the union government to use BSNL mobile phones to understand where there service was available and where it was not.

"There is a problem with services in Delhi and Mumbai. There are no BTS towers. Where is all the money gone. This needs a probe," he said.

Sawant said the government had made allocations for revival of MTNL and BSNL in the previous budget, adding he would like to know where the money has been spent.

Congress member from Assam, Rakibul Hussain, wanted the government to send a special team of MPs to the north-eastern state to study the problem of soil erosion along the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.

"Brahmaputra and 33 tributaries are such that overnight thousands of acres of land gets eroded due to this river. An owner of 100 bighas of land is left landless overnight. The same person is called a ghuspetiya (infiltrator) in Delhi, an outsider," Hussain said.