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