‘I am on the chair of the President, but there is a question’; When a rare sight was seen in the Lok Sabha

New Delhi: A rare sight was seen in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday when Presiding Chairman Krishna Prasad Tennati asked a supplementary question as a member from the question hour itself and Union Minister Jitendra Singh answered it. Actually, Presiding Chairman Tennetti was conducting the proceedings of a part of the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha. During this, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh was answering the supplementary questions of the members. During this, Tennetti said that the next supplementary question is in my name. If you want, you can answer or I can come to your room and talk. On this, Union Minister Singh said smilingly, “I don’t know whether the Chairman can be asked to ask questions or not.” I would be happy to answer if you wish.”

What did the Presiding Chairman ask?

The Presiding Chairman then said that he would like to ask with the permission of the House how work is done to strike a balance between mining of rare elements in coastal areas and environmental protection. Jitendra Singh said that rare elements in the group of seven minerals are found in coastal areas. He said that an issue had come up in 2014-15 that along with graphite mining, the contractor concerned had also mined monazite illegally. “We have taken several steps to stop this,” he said.

Union Minister replied

The Union Minister, while replying to another supplementary question, also said that PM Modi had launched the Somarium Cobalt Magnet Plant in Visakhapatnam in 2023. This plant will produce about 2000 tonnes of mineral per year in the first phase, and 5000 tonnes of mineral will be produced in the second phase. The irony is that our current requirement is 4000 tonnes and by 2030 our requirement will be 8000 tonnes of permanent magnets, but even then our production will remain 5000 tonnes. Singh said that therefore the government has to import rare elements in large quantities. He said that but in the last 10-11 years, due to the intervention of Prime Minister Modi, progress has been made in this direction and the government has started taking steps towards self-reliance.

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