Punjab yet to give proposal on uranium menace: Ramesh

The Punjab government is yet to submit its proposal on measures to tackle the presence of uranium in drinking water in rural areas of the state, Union minister Jairam Ramesh said today.

The Punjab government is yet to submit its proposal on measures to tackle the presence of uranium in drinking water in rural areas of the state, Union minister Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday.

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Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, also the minister for drinking water and sanitation, said the state government has appraised him of the problem.

"Punjab has appraised me (of the problem...I have already told the chief minister to come with a proposal. We are still waiting for it," the minister said in response to a query.

In its recent report tabled in Parliament, the standing committee on rural development had criticised the Centre for not showing "desired level of urgency and seriousness" on the issue.

The standing committee had strongly recommended to the ministry of drinking water and sanitation to give a clear cut mandate to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for giving its views in a time-bound manner and take remedial measures without loss of time.

Strongly recommending the ministry's intervention on "this highly sensitive issue", the committee had said that if the issue remained unabated it "may cause incalculable damage to the health of human beings, livestock, environment and bio-safety".