Shah hits out at Rahul for 'mockery of Constitution' comment
New Delhi, May 17: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday justified his party forming government in Karnataka with B.S. Yeddyurappa taking oath as Chief Minister and hit out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for terming the political developments as "mockery of Constitution".
"The murder of democracy happened the minute a desperate Congress made an ‘opportunist' offer to the Janata Dal-Secular, not for Karnataka's welfare but for their petty political gains. Shameful!," Shah said in a series of tweets.
He said the people's mandate in Karnataka was in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party as the Congress was reduced to 78 from 122 and the saffron party surged from 40 to 104.
"Who has the people's mandate in Karnataka? The BJP, which has won 104 seats. Or, Congress which dropped to 78 seats, whose own Chief Minister and ministers lost by big margins. JD-S who won only 37 seats and lost their deposits on several others," he said.
Slamming the Congress for questioning Governor Vajubhai Vala's decision to call BJP to form the government, he reminded that it was the grand old party which imposed Emergency and misused Article 356.
"President of the Congress obviously does not remember the glorious history of his party. The legacy of Rahul Gandhi's party is the horrific emergency, blatant misuse of Article 356, subverting the courts, media and civil society," he said.
Shah's attack comes soon after Rahul Gandhi termed the swearing-in of Yeddyurappa as 'mockery' of Constitution.
"The BJP's irrational insistence that it will form a government in Karnataka, even though it clearly does not have the numbers, is to make a mockery of our Constitution," Gandhi said.
"This morning, while the BJP celebrates its hollow victory, India will mourn the defeat of democracy," he added.
Governor Vala administered the oath of office and secrecy to Yeddyurappa at 9 a.m. at the Raj Bhavan amid tight security hours after the Supreme Court declined to stay his swearing-in ceremony.
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Tonnes of untreated waste being dumped in landfills in Kedarnath, reveals RTI query
Dehradun, Nov 8: Tonnes of untreated waste continues to be dumped at the landfill sites around the famous Himalayan temple of Kedarnath, causing concern among those who care for the environment as the area is eco-sensitive.
A total of 49.18 tonnes of unprocessed garbage generated in Kedarnath was dumped at the two landfill sites near the temple between 2022 and 2024, an RTI query filed by a Noida-based environmentalist has revealed.
The non-processed garbage generated in the area also showed a rising trend during the period, with 13.2 tonnes of untreated waste generated in 2022, 18.48 tonnes in 2023 and 17.5 tonnes so far this year, according to the Uttarakhand government's response to the query filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Besides, the eco-sensitive area also generated 23.3 tonnes of inorganic garbage during the period.
However, all of it was processed or recycled, the public information officer of the Kedarnath Nagar Panchayat said in response to the RTI query filed by Amit Gupta.
"The RTI data is shocking both in terms of the quantity of garbage generated and the manner in which it has been left untreated. It proves once again that there is no proper garbage management system in Kedarnath, which is an eco-sensitive area," Gupta said.
"The temple is situated at a height of 12,000 feet, where there are also glaciers. The eco-sensitivity of the area is beyond doubt. The lack of a proper garbage management system in Kedarnath even figured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann Ki Baat programme last year. Still nothing is being done by the authorities on the ground to transport the plastic waste to the plains and process it," he said.
The two landfill sites near the temple are reaching their saturation point. If things continue in this manner, another tragedy like the 2013 disaster is unavoidable, the activist said.
What makes the situation even more worrying is that the response to the RTI query claims that no complaint was registered or action taken during the period against garbage disposal in an irresponsible manner.
"I have myself been writing to the authorities for the last two years on the garbage issue in Kedarnath. At least half-a-dozen complaints have been filed by me only," Gupta said.
"The NGT and the NMCG have also taken note of my complaints. Sharing my concern, they directed the authorities to do something to rid the holy place located in the ecologically-fragile Himalayas of untreated waste by setting up enough sewage treatment plants in Kedarnath," he added.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has also written to the Rudraprayag district administration, asking it to take necessary steps to stop the rising pollution levels of the Mandakini river, which flows near the Himalayan temple.
The NMCG issued the directions to the district administration on a complaint filed by Gupta on the basis of an RTI query, which revealed that the absence of sewage treatment plants in Kedarnath is leading to rising pollution levels in the Mandakini, a tributary of the Ganga, with untreated waste being released directly into it.
