'LOK SABHA DEBATES (English Version)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Tblrteeuth SerIes, VoL II, No.6 Me.day, December 6, 1999 AlrablYI.1 15, 1921 (Saka) 'LOK SABHA DEBATES (English Version) Second Session (Thirteenth Lok Sabha) (VoL II cOlfta;"s Nos. 1 to 10) LOK SABHA SECRETARiAT NEW DELHI PriCo! /fs. 50.00 EDITORIAL BOARD G.C. Malhotra Secretary-General Lok Sabha Dr. A.K. Pandey Additional sr:retary Hamam Singh Joint Secretary P.C. Bhatt Chief Editor A.P. Chakravarti Senior Editor J.C. Sharma Editor (Original English Proceedings included In English ""!'lion and Original Hindi Proceedings included In Hindi Version be treated as Authoritative and not the translation thereof. CONTENTS {rhirteenth Series, \-b/. II, Second Session, 199911921 (Sake)) No.6, Monday, December 6, 19991Agrahayana 15, 1921 (Sake) SUBJECT COLU_ ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTION 'Starred Questions Nos. 101. 103. 104 1-24 WRITIEN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 'Starred Questions Nos. 102. 105-106. 108-120 24-54 Unstarred Questions Nos. 963-1065. 1067-1124. 1126-1161 1163-1182. 1184-1192 54-269 PAPERS LAID ON THE TABLE 269-272 DEMANDS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY GRANTS - RAILWAYS 272 MATIERS UNDER RULE 377 (i) Need for early laying of proposed Ramtek Gotegaon rail line in Madhya Pradesh Shri Ram Naresh Tripathee 284 (ii) Need for early construction of the refinery at Agasod in Sagar Parliamentary Constituency. Madhya Pradesh Shri Virendra Kumar 284 (iii) Need for early commissioning of T.V. relay centres at Radhanpur and Disha in Gujarat Shri Haribhai Chaudhary ... 285 (iv) Need to check pollution caused by sugar factory In Newshol tehsil in Ahmednagar district Maharashtra Shri Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi ... 285 (v) Need to provide more railway facilities at the railway stations failing under Cuddapah Parliamentary Constituency. Andhra Pradesh Shri Y.S. Vivekanand Reddy 286 (vi) Need to accord approval to panding Irrigation Projects of Kamataka Shri A. Venkatesh Naik ... 286 (vii) Need to make Trivandrum Intemational Airport operational round the clock Shri Kodikunnil Suresh ... 287 'The + sign marked above the name of a Member indicates that the question was actually asked on the floor of thlt House by that Member. SUBJECT CoLUYIIS (viii) Need to set up BSF posts at suitable points to ensure safety of the occupants of 'Char lands' created by severe erosion in Murshidabad district, West Bengal Shri Moinul Hassan 287 (ix) Need for construction of a bridge on river Krishna connecting Guntur and Krishna districts near Penumudi and Puligadda in Andhra Pradesh Prof. Ummareddy Venkateswarlu 288 (x) Need for early construction of bridge on river Chambal in Bah tehsil of Agra district, U.P. Shri Ramji Lal Suman 289 (xi) Need to set up an L.P.G. outlet at Arwal district in Bihar Shri Arun Kumar 289 (xii) Need to launch a special Employment Generation Programme for the unemployed youth of J&K Shri Abdul Rashid Shaheen 289 LOK SABHA DEBATES LOK SABHA (a) the details of the forest cover In the country. State-wise; Monday, December 6 19991Agrahayana 15, 1921 (b) whether the fast-depleting forests pose a great (Saka) threat to the environment; (c) if so, whether the current forest area meets the The Lok Sabha met at Eleven of the Clock intemational standards; [MR. SPEAKER in the Chaitj (d) if not, the steps taken to Increase forest land during the Ninth Five Year Plan; (Interruptions) SHRI G.M. BANATWALLA (Ponnani) : Mr. Deputy- (e) the allocation made for the Ninth Five Year Plan Speaker, Sir, I request that the a.No. 104 on Babri Masjid for the purpose; may be taken up first. Today is the Seventh anniversary (I) the details of the achievements made in this of the Shahadat of the Babri Masjid. (Interruptions) regard during the Eighth Five Year Plan; SHRI PRIYA RANJAN DASMUNSI (Raiganj) : Sir. today is the 6th December. Why do you not take up this (g) whether the Govemment propose to bring a new Question first? Nobody in this House will object. legislation to save the forest land; and (Interruptions) (h} if so, the details thereof ? SHRI KODIKUNNIL SURESH (Adoor) : Sir, this a very THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS genuine demand. (SHRI T.R. BAALU) : (a) to (h) Statement is laid on the Table MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: In any case that question will of the House. come up. Let us take up a. No. 101. Statement SHRI SONTOSH MOHAN DEV (Silchar) : Sir, I think no Party will object on the Babri Masjid Issue . .. (Interruptions) (a) The State-wise details of the forest cover in the country Is given In Annexure. MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: a. No. 101. (Interruptions) (b) and (c) As per State of Forest Report. 1997, forest cover in India Is 63.3 million hectares which Is 19.27% of SHRI G.M. BANATWALLA : Sir, please take up the the geographical area of the country. Though no Babri Masjid issue. intematlonal standards regarding forest cover have been MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER : In any case this will colT18 laid down, National Forest Policy. 1988 envisages for 33% up. of the geog~aphic area of the country to be under forest or tree cover. The inadequate forest cover causes soil SHRI SULTAN SALAHUDDIN OWAISI (Hyderabad): erosion, land degradation and instability of the fragile eco- Sir, today is 6th December. system. SHRI G.M. BANATWALLA : Sir, you can d(l it ... (d) to (I) During Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97), (Interruptions) afforestation has been done over 7.95 million hectares. An MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER : Please do not waste the allocation of Rs. 1454 crores has been earmarked for the time. Let us start. This question is coming in any case. Let Ministry under the Ninth Five Year Plan for conservation us not waste the time of the House. and development of forests. In the first two years of Ninth I now call a.No. 101. Shri Lakshman Singh - Absent. Five Year Plan period (1997-1999). afforestation over 3.05 million hectares has been done. For sustainable Shri Braj Mohan Ram. development of forests and to increase the forestsltree ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS cover to one-third of the geographic area of the country a comprehensive action plan of 20 years has been Forest Cover prepared. + (g) and (h) There Is no proposal under consideration *101. SHRI BRAJ MOHAN RAM: to bring a new Iegl8lation to save the forest land. HOWtMIr, SHRI LAKSHMAN SINGH : It has been decided to amend the Indian Forest Act, 1927 Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS to make It more effecIJve for conservation and development be pleased to state : of for..... 3 Oral Answers DECEMBER 6, 1999 to Questions 4 Annexure {Translstion] State-wise details of Forest Cover in the Country SHRI BRAJ MOHAN RAM : Mr, Deputy Speaker, Sir, as per State of Forest Report, 1997. at present India has 19,27% forest cover. After independence, it has increased in less ratio. How will you No. Name of the Forest cover as per State achieve the target of 33% and at present what is the State/UT of Forest Report, 1997 ------------------- condition of Bihar? 1. Andhra Pradesh 43,290 [English] 2. Arunachal Pradesh 68,602 SHRI T.R. BAALU : Sir, from the First Plan to the Fifth 3. Assam 23,824 Plan, that is, from 1951 to 1980, the afforestation measures have been taken upto 3.5 million hectares. In the Sixth Plan 4. Bihar 26,524 the allocation was 0.71 per cent and the afforestation took 5. Delhi 26 place in 4.65 million hectares. In the Seventh Plan, the 6. Goa 1,252 allocation made was 1,03 per cent of the Plan allocation and the afforestation was in 8.86 million hectares. In the 7. Gujarat 12,578 Annual Plans from 1990 to 1992 the afforestation was in 8. Haryana 604 3.12 million hectares. In the Eighth Plan, that is, from 1992 to 1997, 0.94 per cent allocation was made and the 9. Himachal Pradesh 12,521 afforestation done was in 7,95 million hectares, In the Ninth 10. Jammu & Kashmir 20,440 Plan, the allocation was ~ 1 ,454 crore of this Ministry. For the past two years the afforestation taken place was 11. Karnataka 32,403 to the extent of 3.05 million hectares. 12. Kerala 10,334 As far as Bihar is concemed, the total geographical 13. Madhya Pradesh 131,195 area is 1,73,877 square kilometres, and the forest cover 14. Maharashtra 46,143 is 26,524 square kilometres. Actually the percentage is 15.3 per cent. 15. Manipur 17,418 SHRI RAJ IV PRATAP RUDY (Chhapra) : Sir, the 16. Meghalaya 15,657 question was slightly different. (Interruptions) 17. Mizoram 18,775 {Translation] 18. Nagaland 14,221 SHRI BRAJ MOHAN RAM : Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, 19. Orissa 46,941 I have not received the reply of my question which I would 20. Punjab 1,387 like to know from Hon'ble Minister. I wanted to know as 21. Rajasthan 13,353 to what was the position of Bihar In 1947 and at present what is its position? 22. Sikkim 3,129 [English] 23. Tamil Nadu 17,064 SHRI T.R. BAALU : In 1947, it was actually about 14 24. Tripura 5,546 per cent of the geographical area under forest and now 25. Uttar Pradesh 33,994 it is 19.27 per cent. 26. West Bengal 8,349 SHRI M.V.V.S. MURTHY (Visakhapatnam) : Sir, the 27. A & N Islands 7,613 National Policy on Forest Cover states that it is 33 per cent whereas the State of Andhra Pradesh is in the fifth rank 28. Chandigarh 7 in the order of forest cover, with 46,000 and odd acres. 29. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 204 I would like to know whether that falls within that 33 per cent of forest coverage or not.