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Khurana wants PM to intervene in Delhi deadlock

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Cocking a snook at the party leadership, Madanlal Khurana on Monday urged Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, local MPs and bureaucrats to solve the wrangle over polluting industries in the national capital region.

"Vajpayee should call a meeting of the Delhi chief minister, MPs and bureaucrats before the ceiling is imposed [regarding relocation of industries which are deemed polluting] in Delhi. He should also ensure that the relocation sites should have proper infrastructure [like adequate roads and electricity]," Khurana told reporters in Parliament.

"How can you relocate industries in Delhi which do not pollute?" he asked in an indirect reference to the Union Urban Development Minister Jagmohan's apparent determination to ensure the relocation of offending industries.

Khurana's demand that the prime minister and not the urban development minister hold the meeting is at variance with the party leadership's decision that Jagmohan should go ahead with relocating offending industries as per the Supreme Court's verdict.

"After all it is a human problem, you cannot just wish away all industries in Delhi with the blanket explanation that every one of them is polluting the environment," Khurana told rediff.com

He said Vajpayee was the best person to hold the meeting so that justice was meted out to non-polluting industries.

When reminded that Dixit had thwarted an attempt on Monday morning to lead a march to Parliament to protest against the "indiscriminate relocation", Khurana said he had told her to "stop this drama".

He contended that the BJP was fully capable of taking care of the problem and the Congress should desist from trying to extract political capital from the issue.

"The Congress leaders were well aware of industries burgeoning in Delhi. I want to ask them if they took any initiative to ensure that only those industries that did not pollute were permitted to continue," he said.

He underscored his determination to fight against "all injustice" to those who deserved proper consideration from the government because their industries did not come under the purview of the Supreme Court verdict.

Khurana, a former Delhi chief minister and former Union minister, is known for periodically lashing out at the BJP leadership and the government because of his ill-concealed grouse -- that he has not been inducted into the Cabinet.

One of his aides said Khurana is "not fully satisfied" on being made party vice-president. Therefore, he does not miss an opportunity to 'snipe' at the party whenever it comes to matters concerning Delhi, which he considers his constituency.

Congress spokeswoman Margaret Alva, however, maintained that the stalemate was continuing because the Delhi chief minister had told Vajpayee that "Jagmohan had failed to respond" to her party's demand that the Delhi master plan be amended.

Alva said Dixit also met party chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday morning and urged her to take up the issue in Parliament. "Jagmohan should look at the human side (of the problem) and find an answer," she added.

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