Presiding Officer Takes Part in Lok Sabha Question Hour in Unusual Move
New Delhi: The president himself asking questions during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday was a rare occurrence in parliamentary proceedings.
Telugu Desam Party leader Krishna Prasad Tenneti was in the Chair when a question he listed on rare earth minerals was put up for discussion.
Tenneti received permission from the House to ask questions of the President.
“The next question is on my behalf. You can answer if you want,” he told Minister of State for Earth Sciences (Independent Officer) Jitendra Singh.
“Sir, with the permission of the House, I ask: When we find rare earths on the coastline and seashore, we must both protect the environment and exploit …(resources). How do we balance both?” The TDP leader asked this question to Singh, who also serves as Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and Atomic Energy and Space Departments.
In his answer, Singh explained that beach sand minerals, an important resource mentioned by Tenneti, come mainly from two sources: beach deposits and rock formations.
“These occur in combination with a variety of other minerals, and we are already actively mining them,” he said.
In his reply, Singh said: “Smuggling became a problem during 2014-15. One such mineral was graphite. Contractors took advantage of graphite exploration to illegally mine monazite, a vital source of thorium. Therefore, we took more permanent measures to control it and there was an embargo for some time.”
