Uma Bharti slams Opposition for not letting her speak on Ganga

New Delhi: Union Minister Uma Bharti on Thursday slammed the opposition for not allowing her to speak in Lok Sabha on the issue of rejuvenation of Ganga and give details of the project due to disruptions in the House over alleged forced reconversion in Agra.

The Minister for Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation also accused the opposition of doing "nothing" on the issue for 10 years.

"There was an important question today, which I had been raising with the members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the last two years and had brought them on the same page.

"When the issue of Ganga was raised, the Speaker was saying that this issue is related to Ganga and let her (Bharti) speak. If a bill on Ganga was to be introduced, it would have got passed without an opposition," Bharti said.

The Minister was speaking to reporters outside the Parliament.

She, however, declined to give details of the project on the pretext that the question was yet to be answered before the House.

Attacking the Opposition over the issue, Bharti said, "The previous government did nothing on Ganga. The Prime Minister has acted so fast on the issue. Never has there been a case in the world that any Prime Minister constituted a ministry and it started functioning smoothly in six months. I wanted to give a brief of this in the Parliament.

"Even on the issue of Ganga, the opposition did not allow any discussion to take place," she said.

When asked about the on-going row on religious reconversion in Agra, she dodged the question saying that the matter is "beyond her purview to comment on."