LOK SABHA ___ SYNOPSIS OF DEBATES (Proceedings other than Questions & Answers) ______ Thursday, February 8, 2018/Magha 19, 1939 (Saka) ______ OBITUARY REFERENCES HON'BLE SPEAKER: Hon'ble Members, I have to inform the House about the sad demise of two former Members, namely, Shri Narsingh Narain Pandey and Shri Raghunath Jha. Shri Narsingh Narain Pandey was a Member of the 5th Lok Sabha representing the Gorakhpur Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He was also a Member of the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1982. He was a Member of the Committee on Absence of Members from Sittings of the House. Earlier, Shri Pandey was a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 1962 to 1967. Shri Narsingh Narain Pandey passed away on 8 January, 2018 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh at the age of 88. Shri Raghunath Jha was a Member of the 13th and 14th Lok Sabhas representing the Gopalganj and Bettiah Parliamentary Constituencies of Bihar. Shri Jha was Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises from April, 2008 to May, 2009. He was a Member of the Committee on Agriculture; Committee on Ethics; Committee on Home Affairs Railway Convention Committee; House Committee and also the Public Accounts Committee. Shri Jha was a Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from 1972 to 1998. He also served as Minister in the Government of Bihar. Shri Raghunath Jha passed away on 15 January, 2018 in New Delhi at the age of 78. We deeply mourn the loss of our two former colleagues. I am sure the House would join me in conveying our condolences to the bereaved families. The Members then stood in silence for a short while. _______ *MATTERS UNDER RULE 377 1. SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI laid a statement regarding need to exempt handicraft and handloom industry from Goods and Services Tax. 2. SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS laid a statement regarding need to ensure setting up of assistance cell and office by Insurance companies under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in every Tehsil headquarters in the country. * Laid on the Table as directed by the Speaker. 3. SHRI JANARDAN SINGH SIGRIWAL laid a statement regarding need to introduce Mobile Soil Testing Centres in the country. 4. SHRI VINOD KUMAR SONKAR laid a statement regarding need to release prisoners who have served their prison terms and still languishing in jails in the country. 5. SHRI RAJENDRA AGRAWAL laid a statement regarding need to renovate heritage buildings of Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. 6. SHRI BHAIRON PRASAD MISHRA laid a statement regarding need to set up shelter homes for 'Anna Pratha' cattle in Banda and Chitrakoot districts, Uttar Pradesh. 7. SHRI OM BIRLA laid a statement regarding need to set up IIT, IIIT and AIIMS in Kota city, Rajasthan. 8. SHRI JUGAL KISHORE laid a statement regarding need to provide residential plots to residents of border districts of Jammu & Kashmir forced to vacate their houses due to shelling from across the border. 9. SHRI B. N. CHANDRAPPA laid a statement regarding need to provide financial assistance to drought affected Karnataka under NDRF. 10. PROF. K.V. THOMAS laid a statement regarding need to provide financial assistance to people affected by cyclone 'Ockhi' in Kerala. 11. SHRI M.I. SHANAVAS laid a statement regarding problems faced by people of north Kerala due to laying of pipeline by Gas Authority of India Limited. 12. SHRI C. MAHENDRAN laid a statement regarding need to expedite release of fund for various Centrally sponsored schemes in Tamil Nadu. 13. SHRI RABINDRA KUMAR JENA laid a statement regarding installation of Doppler Weather Radars in Odisha. 14. SHRI KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE laid a statement regarding need to improve promotion avenues for Store - Khalasi in Railways and permit them to appear in departmental examination for the purpose. 15. SHRI KESINENI SRINIVAS laid a statement regarding need to provide stoppage of certain trains at Kondapalli Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh. 16. SHRI RADHESHYAM BISWAS laid a statement regarding discrepancies in NRC Part Draft published in Assam. 17. SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR laid a statement regarding need to formulate a comprehensive policy to improve the condition of farmers in the country. 18. SHRI RAJU SHETTY laid a statement regarding need to provide financial assistance to cotton growers in Maharashtra. _______ THE UNION BUDGET - 2018-2019 - GENERAL DISCUSSION - CONTD. SHRI GANESH SINGH resuming said: Our Prime Minister has set a time limit for increasing farmers’ income. The Government relaxed the crop insurance rules and set a minimum limit of 33 per cent crop damage for its insurance. Swaminathan Commission had recommended to set the Minimum Support Price at 1.5 times of the crop cost. Our Madhya Pradesh government has decided that if food-grains, for which MSP are declared, are sold at lower rates in the markets, the difference amount will be paid by our government. Farmers of our country are now getting the Neem coated urea on time. Farmers have been granted the right to get done soil health test of their land and sowing of crop will be done on the basis of the said test. The government has decided to construct cold storages. Farming of herbs, flowers, vegetables, milk production, pisciculture, poultry, animal husbandry, etc. have been kept under the loan purview. Farmers who don’t have land-lease, take land on share-cropping basis. The Government will work towards giving loans to such farmers through credit cards for farming. The Government has decided to ensure that every poor person of this country has a house by the year 2022. Medical treatment guarantee of ten crore families has been ensured. They can have treatment to the tune of Rs. 5 lakh in any hospital. Today, poor people have electricity connections in their homes, children of poor people are getting free education, they are getting health treatment, arrangements are being taken care of to make available two time meals for the poor people, roads and sewers are being constructed today in poor people’s habitation areas. Skill development centres are being established everywhere to train youth. The government has provided four lakh crore rupees in Mudra Bank and ten crore and fifty lakh rupees have been given as loans to young people for carrying out business activities and for self-employment purpose. SHRIMATI RANJANBEN BHATT: Firstly, I thank Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of Finance for announcing establishment of Railway University in my parliamentary constituency. This Budget has a number of announcements for farmers which will go a long way in ensuring remunerative prices for their produce. A scheme has been has been envisaged for irrigation for converting three crore electric or diesel pumps into solar energy pumps. Poor people have been given benefit of Health insurance in this budget. There is a proposal of giving health insurance cover of five lakh rupees annually to each family, it will benefit 50 crore people of the country. Indian women have been gifted expansion of UJJWALA Yojna. The target of gas connections under UJJWALA Yojna has been revised from 5 crore to 8 crore. Women employees have been given big relief in this budget. They will get more salary in hand as their PF deduction will be eight percent. This time special attention has been given to industry sector. The Government has tried to pay more attention to domestic production by investing 3794 crore rupees. The budget has announced standard deduction of 40,000 rupees for salaried class. The Government has promised to train 50 lakh youth and to give employment to 70 lakh youth.The budget has emphasized on education. The shortage of doctors will be overcome by opening 24 new medical colleges. Simillary we will get quality teachers by implementing integrated B.ed programmes. Tribal people will get good quality education through residential Eklavya school scheme. SHRI HARIOM SINGH RATHORE: This Budget is pro-developmental and it will strengthen the new India vision. Now the country is aggressively moving towards achieving economic growth rate beyond 8 percent. The steps to increase institutional loan to agricultural sector from Rs. 8.5 lakh crore to Rs. 11 lakh crore in 2018-19, will be a milestone in the progress of farmers. It is significant to develop and uplift 22,000 Rural Haats. The launching of ‘Operation Greens’ will bring relief to the producers. Bamboo has the potential to form an important base for farmer’s income. New avenues have been provided for bamboo growers by making a provision of Rs. 1,290 crore under Restructured National Bamboo Mission. World’s largest Health security scheme has been introduced through NAMO Care with a limit of Rs. 5 lacs per family. In this Budget Rs. 5.97 lakh crore has been allocated for basic infrastructure sector. A National programme will be started for Artificial Intelligence (AI) by NITI Ayog. A standard deduction of Rs. 40,000 has been announced in this Budget. It will be beneficial for 2.5 crore salaried class persons and pensioners. It is proposed to increase the period of Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna upto March, 2020. SHRIMATI DARSHANA VIKRAM JARDOSH: A large number of poor and marginalized population which remained deprived of health services earlier due to lack of money now will get quality medical facilities. Government is promising to give Rs. 500 per month to TB patients in the country. 24 Medical Colleges will be opened in the country. In education sector also a lot of commendable initiatives have been taken. One lakh crore rupees have been allotted in four years for Education. Lot of efforts were made to mislead the people about GST.