Union minister Nitin Gadkari. (File)The government is looking at making use of nitrogen in car tyres mandatory. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said this in Rajya Sabha on Monday while replying to a question on traffic accidents on the Yamuna Expressway.
“…till now we did not know about how tyres manufactured in India matched up to those manufactured as per international standards. In America and other western nations, silicon is added to the rubber in tyres. This ensures that there are less complaints about tyre bursts. Second, if instead of normal air, nitrogen is used in tyres, it stays cool. We are thinking of making both these things mandatory,” Gadkari said in the House while replying to the starred question asked by BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav.
The minister also informed the House that on the “cement and concrete highway”, 133 people died in 2016, 146 in 2017 and 11 in 2018.
Earlier, Trinamool Congress members staged a walkout over the proposed disinvestment of 42 PSUs in the Union Budget. When MP Dola Sen enquired about the status of her notice on the issue, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu told her that as he had conveyed to her in his chamber too, the matter is under consideration. There were some disruptions during which Naidu said, “This is not the way. I will never get work done under pressure.”
He also denied Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy’s point of order, asking how he could raise it when his party was not in order. The Trinamool MPs walked out after a few minutes of disruptions.
Naidu finished not only all the Zero Hour notices but also took up special mentions during the first hour. However, he retracted his earlier directive that ministers would have to reply to all Zero Hour issues, saying that he had gone wrong in his “enthusiasm” and that was not possible.
DMK members, too, staged a walkout after party leader Tiruchi Siva raised the issue of NEET. “The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously passed two Bills, which have come to the Union government. Now, it has been revealed in the Supreme Court that the Home Ministry has rejected the proposal of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly… this is totally against the spirit of federalism. Disowning the decision of the State Legislature is not acceptable… in protest, we walk out,” Siva said. AIADMK leader Navneethakrishnan too raised the same issue.
