Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) [India], December 31 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Congress leader V Gurunadham on Saturday said that people should not “insult” Lord Rama by sloganeering in his name in public or during any inauguration event.
“Don’t insult Shri Ram by saying it anywhere while opening public roads and transport, it is a holy pious slogan that should be made in temples or houses and not in public meetings. We (Congress) are not against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hinduism but they should remain secular as per the Preamble. That’s very bad to chant Jai Shri Ram when development activities are underway. We condemn it and Mamata Banerjee rightly unshared the dais of the opening of the Vande Bharat train in West Bengal,” V Gurunadham said extending his support to West Bengal Chief Minister as she refused to go to the stage and sat beside the other government officials during an event where Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually flagged off the Vande Bharat Express train that will run between Howrah and New Jalpaiguri in the state.
He further said that the semi-high-speed train has been inaugurated for the people of every religion and not only for the Hindus.
“She is right because Jai Shri Ram has nothing to do with the development of India, all these projects are a part of the government’s duties which has nothing to do with Jai Shri Ram. Shri Ram is a holy pious slogan that should be made in temples or houses and not in public meetings. When you are opening a Vande Bharat train, it is not Hindu who will travel through this but is meant for everyone, belonging to every religion,” he said.
“You can not make blind slogans everywhere wherever there is an inauguration going on,” Gurunadham added.
The train will cover a distance of around 550km and will take a little more than seven and a half hours to reach its destination, with only three stoppages from Howrah to NJP. The Shatabdi also runs between the two terminals.
Meanwhile, V Gurunadham also reacted to the Delhi government’s decision to ban construction activities in the national capital in order to curb the increasing pollution and said this decision shows that they are against the poor people in the city.
“It is very sad news to ban construction activities in Delhi to control the pollution. It is not correct because in Delhi more than 50 lakhs people depend on construction and demolition activities,” he said.
He further underlined that Congress was not against the need to control pollution, but they were opposing the ban on construction and demolition activities.
“The government should come up with better alternatives to control pollution on the basis of experts’ studies on why the pollution is increasing in the national capital despite continuous efforts to control it.
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), Delhi is witnessing a ‘very poor’ air quality with its Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 354 on Saturday.
In view of the significant deterioration in the air quality of Delhi-NCR in the last 24 hours, the Sub-Committee for invoking actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas held an emergency meeting on Friday.
“While assessing the overall air quality parameters, the Sub-Committee noted that due to extremely unfavourable meteorological conditions the overall air quality of Delhi has deteriorated over the last few hours and there is an increasing trend further in the coming days as per the Air Quality forecast of IMD/IITM. Therefore, it is considered necessary to put Stage III of GRAP back in place with immediate effect in the entire NCR in an effort to prevent further deterioration of air quality in the region,” said a statement from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The committee enforced a strict ban on construction and demolition activities in the entire NCR, except for railway services, metro rail services including stations, hospitals, health care facilities and sanitation projects like sewage treatment plants and water supply projects etc among others. (ANI)
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