By IANS
New Delhi : Cutting across party lines, Indian MPs Tuesday urged the government to take "immediate steps" to contain global warming, saying it would put the country's ecology in trouble soon.
In a four-hour-long lively discussion in the Lok Sabha, the MPs listed the dangers the country was likely to face in the near future unless the government took urgent measures to tackle the problem.
Pointing out that the first ever authentic report on global warming had warned that it would lead to major natural disasters in the country, C.K. Chandrappan of the Communist Party of India, who initiated the discussion, said: "The report said that global warming would lead to the melting of glaciers all across the globe. Bigger rivers have no future. The Tibetan plain would be warmed up. Rivers like Brahmaputra would flood and then dry up."
He said smoke emission from burning of hydrocarbons was leading to the greenhouse effect and said the government was yet to set up institutes to study the effect of the meltdown of glaciers.
The MPs asked the government to take the issue seriously and chalk out a strategy to contain the situation at the prime minister's level.
While the Left MPs tried to blame the US for not taking initiatives to control the climatic changes, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress MPs urged the government not to indulge in blame game, but "set an example".
Environmentalist Maneka Gandhi listed 10 steps for the government to tackle the matter "intelligently".
"There would not be any governance left when global warming starts showing its adverse effects… We already have (untimely) hail storms, sharp erosion in the coastal areas and disappearance of islands," Gandhi said.
"Nations cannot indulge in blame game. It is not the US alone, China and India are equally responsible," she said.
The BJP MP questioned why there was no ministry of renewable energy instead of non-conventional energy in the country.
"We should insist that each state should have 20 percent of its region as green. There should be a moratorium on deforestation. People should use decentralised mixes of energy," Gandhi said, adding that the government should lay more stress on usage of wind and solar power and promote vegetable-based fuel.
Criticising the government for not "being serious" in tackling the issue, Congress MP Sandip Dikshit said: "I do not think our leadership is serious about tackling the issue. The report has come almost a month back but there is no sign of urgency."
Manvendra Singh of the BJP warned that India should be a "solution finding country rather than blaming country". He pointed out that the budgetary allocation for non-conventional energy resources was less than that for VIP protection.
Shiv Sena MP Suresh Prabhu said climate change was a reality and efforts should be made to deal with the situation.
Among others who participated in the discussion were Bhartruhari Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal), Ram Kripal Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal) Kharabela Swain (BJP) Sujan Chakraborty (Communist Party of India-Marxist), Francis George (Kerala Congress-J) Sippiparai Ravichandra (MDMK) and K. Samba Siva Rao (Congress).