SUPPLEMENT to SYNOPSIS of DEBATE ______(Proceedings Other Than Questions and Answers) ______Thursday, March 15, 2012/ Phalguna 25, 1933 (Saka) ______

∗SUPPLEMENT TO SYNOPSIS OF DEBATE ______(Proceedings other than Questions and Answers) ______Thursday, March 15, 2012/ Phalguna 25, 1933 (Saka) ______

MOTION OF THANKS ON THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS -Contd.

SHRI BIRENDRA PRASAD BAISHYA: We achieved more than seven per cent economic growth in the last year. The credit goes to our strong banking system. Even during the period of global recession our economy had performed much better. This Government has totally failed in controlling price rise and inflation in country. Due to the total failure of the Public Distribution System people suffered a lot. People are suffering very badly in our State and the North-Eastern Region.

Still Indo-Bangladesh border is open. One of the important emphasis given is regarding the protocol of the Land Border Agreement between India and Bangladesh. The land of Assam had been given to Bangladesh without consulting us. This Agreement is totally against the spirit of people of Assam. If any person from Arunachal Pradesh goes to visit China, he will not get visa. Another very serious problem faced by the people of the North-Eastern Region and the people of Eastern India is bifurcation of River Brahmaputra at ______∗This Synopsis is not an authoritative record of the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha.

48 the source. This is a very serious issue. They have already constructed a dam. When we are going to develop better relations with neighbouring countries, please remember that there is a State or a region in our country which is the integral part of our country and this is the North-Eastern Region. It is a welcome move of the Government to clean up the Ganga River. The Government of India should declare flood and erosion problem of Assam a national problem.

In her Address, the hon. President has given importance to fertilizer production in our country. But, the Government has not done anything to revamp the ‘Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation’. Government should start implementation of the Assam Accord which was signed 26 years back with the leaders of Assam Movement. The hon. President has given importance to the power generation in our country. But the rural electrification has totally failed in the North-Eastern region. President has given importance to the protection of tigers. No measures have been taken by the Government of India to protect rhino population in our country. The Government of India has not given any importance to the development of small tea gardens in our region. The hon. President has mentioned about the 'Look East Policy'. Without the development of route connectivity with the South Asian countries, the 'Look East Policy' will be incomplete.

SHRI BHAGAT SINGH KOSHYARI: The President's Address is the reflection of the work done by the Government in a year. This Address is not an appealing one. Entire Address lacks the spirit of inspiration. This is a routine Address having nothing new. Government has failed to solve even the small matters. Such as NCTC, UID and age dispute of chief of the Army. Names of top scientists of ISRO were dragged in the scam of lakhs of crore rupees that took place in the organization. There are cases of espionage in the Ministries of Finance and Defence, but Government has done nothing in this regard. 'Ganga Basin Authority' came into existence three years ago but not a single meeting has been called so far. After reading this Address it looks like a customary Address.

49 Government has nothing to do with morality and constitutional rights. I think as long as your Government is safe, you are not going to bring Food Security Bill. My state is very small and it has very less resources. Even then you are not providing foodgrains at the cheaper rates like other States. 'One Rank One Pension' is a simple matter. An additional burden on you is just Rs. 1300 crore. There is no reference of these soldiers in the President's Address. It is very pathetic and deplorable situation.

Whether there is any target of this Government? What do you mean by 21st century? Where do you want this country to go in the 21st century? There is no consensus in the UPA. We have fixed the target of construction of 277 roads till 2012 but only 29 roads are constructed till now. What are you doing? Whether you have tried to develop harmony among the people? This President's Address is not according to our country and not fit for the country.

SHRI HUSAIN DALWAI: Opposition parties have raised issues regarding functioning of Central Government and assault on federal structural etc. Present Government is an alliance government. Despite worldwide economic crisis, we were not so badly hit. It is an achievement of the present Government. Though our growth rate has fallen but economy was intact. We were able to bear all these shocks due to our mixed economy. Investments are increasing which is a sign of good economy. Situation in internal and external security is much better than the days of NDA government. Number of steps have been taken by the government with regard to internal security. We are engage in dialogues with all our neighbouring countries on bilateral issues. Overall situation is better the past.

Other issue is regarding assault on federal structure. I am not a Constitutional expert. We are multi linguistic, multi caste and multi religious country. Whenever we have terrorist attack in any part of India, it is not an attack particular State or city. It is an attack on the India as a nation then we don’t talk about federalism. NCTC is being

50 opposed extremely. Government will resolve the issue of NCTC. We are Union of States and our Constitution gives more powers to Central Government in case of exigencies.

85 lakh people will be provided training in various skills. Teachers will be provided more training. I demand to the government that minorities particularly Muslims need to be given more attention as this community is educationally backward. I request that age for child labour should be increased from 14 years to 18 years. 72 percent of child labour out of total child labour belong to Muslim community. It is serious issue. Muslim children should have residential schools on the lines of Adivasi and Dalit children.

The incidents of cancer, diabetes, heart diseases have increased on a large scale. In Maharashtra, Ayurvedic and Homeopathic doctors are recruited as Medical Officers, but the persons having BUMS degree are not recruited. It is injustice with them. The practice of manual scavenging should be stopped as early as possible. If the Government would bring a bill in this regard, the opposition parties will extend their full support. The growth in the agricultural sector is 6.6 percent at present. It will further increase in the 12th Plan because there has been a record production. The Minimum Support Price of cotton should be increased. Efforts are being made in the country to increase the irrigation capacity. Dry farming should also be encouraged.

The people from other countries are benefiting more from the International Crop Research Institute at Hyderabad in comparison to the people of our country. This fact should also be given consideration. The Government has done a lot of work in the field of power generation. It has increased considerably in the recent past. The work of electrification of villages has been carried out on a large scale in the country through Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme. Today, 1,02,993 villages have been electrified. More than 18 lakh houses have been lighten up. The work on National Programme for Urban Homeless should be expedited. Today purchasing a house has

51 become very difficult for even the people belonging to middle and higher middle class. Therefore, the Government should formulate programmes on a large scale so that the rising prices of houses could be brought down as early as possible. A lot has been said about the Communal Bill. But, I feel that communalism does not belong to a particular community. Our constitution has entrusted the Government with the responsibility to remove communalism. The Government should take action in this regard.

PROF. M.S. SWAMINATHAN: The President has referred to the five important challenges facing our country and she has rightly listed livelihood security as number one. In our country, starvation or malnutrition is not due to lack of food in the market, it is due to lack of purchasing power. Job security and income security are the most important components of livelihood security.

I hope, the skill training programme will cover rural areas, where 70 per cent of our people live, and especially women. In fact, the National Rural Livelihood Mission is also part of an overall livelihood security programme. But the Mahila Kisan Sashakteekaran Pariyojana should be kept as a separate programme, not merged with something else, so that it does get adequate attention. Today, we also require for our agriculture, at least, at every block, a farm school on the model of Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

We need to contain price volatility and food inflation. Everybody mentions it to be one of the reasons why we have so much malnutrition. The reason is the high price of commodities and the food volatility. We require a national mission for the management of price volatility and food inflation. We should not export feed which are important for our own animals. Then only the milk price will come down. Pulses are very important not only for fighting protein hunger but they are also very important for fighting soil hunger because they fix nitrogen in the soil. I would appeal that Pulses Programme should receive much greater attention.

52 I have been repeatedly recommending, particularly in the context of the National Food Security Bill, at least, have at 50 different locations in the country, one million tonnes of foodgrains of ultra-modern storage. The National Water Mission is very important for us. Water security is going to be our important problem in the future. Therefore, every drop of water must be conserved. The Monsoon Mission which was announced by the President is exceedingly important. They must maximise production in a year of good weather, minimise the adverse impact of abnormal weather. So, the monsoon mission should not remain only statistical information over the radio and television.

I am sorry to say that our Biodiversity Act is 10 years old. It has three levels of management---Panchayat level Biodiversity Management Committee, State level Biodiversity Boards and National Biodiversity Authority. If you go to Panchayat people and ask them about this biodiversity Act, they do not know. Most of our rich biodiversity is in tribal areas. Koraput in Orissa is recognised as a globally important agricultural heritage site. I think at least before October our Ministry of Environment should in a few States activate the Panchayati Raj institutions. Gram Swaraj is the way to Puran Swaraj. If we do not have Panchayati Raj, nothing will happen.

SHRI D. BANDYOPADHYAY: I am pleased that the hon. President's Address describes the levels of security which are livelihood, economic, energy, ecological, environment and internal and external security. But, this year there is a fall in the GDP while the Government says that they have already made hopeful achievement in this respect. It is very satisfying as well as very terrifying that luxury market in India is likely to grow every year. The Indians are really indulging themselves crazily in the luxury market. According to the Kotak Wealth Crisil Report, the number of affluent Indians is likely to triple by 2016. On the other hand, there are also such people as are covered by deep darkness of despondency, despair and deprivation. In times of crisis, they sell their assets or mortgage them to get some income to survive. In India, the distribution of assets

53 is extremely unequal. This is all due to the neo-liberal economic policies.

Endemic poverty of Indian masses is a scourge. In the Sixth Five Year Plan, resources were diverted for rural development and poverty alleviation for the first time. It had some positive effect on them. But the annual rate of deceleration of poverty in the last ten years has been only 0.8 per cent. At that rate, we cannot achieve the target of reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2015. The poverty of certain marginalized groups like SC, ST and OBC had hardly reduced. It is regretful that the hon. President's Speech does not indicate any alternative measure for better income distribution, high level of employment and equitable share of benefits of growth among different classes of people. We are much lower than the developed countries in respect of poverty line. We should not rely too much on the market mechanism for the alleviation of poverty.

In respect of employment, more than 3 crores of people are sitting idle. In the employed population, self-employed constitute roughly 43 per cent. Only 16.8 per cent population is regular salaried class. The rest 39.3 per cent population is casual. 40 per cent of the casual labour force is the most vulnerable section. New technology does not absorb labour. It is displacing labour.

There is all round euphoria about the high rate of production this year. It is very good. In fact, it is the third consecutive year that we are having bumper production. But, we expect bad monsoon next year. We have an alarming situation in agriculture because the public investment in agriculture is coming down steeply. Hardly any big or medium irrigation scheme has been introduced. The prices of fertilizers, except urea, have been decontrolled. As a result, the prices of fertilizers have zoomed. The market does not include the poor because they cannot operate the market. It is only for the rich. Though there is a tremendous attempt to bring in genetically modified seeds yet these seeds cannot be duplicated by farmers. The farmers are still committing suicides. They should be made autonomous. The

54 autonomy of the peasantry gives the autonomy of the Indian economy. The company, which controls GM crop, should be discouraged. That is how the Indian farmers can maintain their autonomy.

Discussion not concluded.

V. K. AGNIHOTRI, Secretary-General. [email protected]