LOK SABHA ___ SYNOPSIS OF DEBATES (Proceedings other than Questions & Answers) ______ Monday, March 16, 2020 / Phalguna 26, 1941 (Saka) ______ OBITUARY REFERENCE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, I have to inform the House about the sad demise of our three former Members, Shri Ram Krishna Yadav, Shri Tapas Paul and Shrimati Krishna Bose. Shri Ram Krishna Yadav was a Member of 9th Lok Sabha representing Azamgarh Parliamentary Constituency. He was a Member of Committee on Agriculture. Shri Ram Krishna Yadav passed away on 25th January, 2020 at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh at the age of 82. Shri Tapas Paul was a Member of 15th and 16th Lok Sabha representing Krishna Nagar Parliamentary Constituency of West Bengal. Prior to this, he was a Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly for two terms. Shri Paul was an active Parliamentarian who served as a Member of different Parliamentary Standing Committees. Shri Tapas Paul was a renowned film actor who acted in more than 400 films of Bengali, Hindi and Oriya languages. He received so many film awards. Shri Tapas Paul passed away on 18th February, 2020 at Mumbai at the age of 61. Shrimati Krishna Bose was a Member of 11th, 12th and 13th Lok Sabha representing Jadavpur Parliamentary Constituency of West Bengal. Shrimati Krishna Bose served as a Chairperson of Committee on External Affairs and as a Member of different Parliamentary Committees. A well-known educationist, Shrimati Bose taught in different educational institutions for about four decades and also written so many books. Shrimati Krishna Bose passed away on 22nd February, 2020 at Kolkata at the age of 89. We deeply mourn the loss of our former colleagues and the House convey its condolences to the bereaved families. Thereafter, the Members stood in silence for a while. ____________ MATTERS UNDER RULE 377 1. SHRI ARJUN SINGH laid a statement regarding coal illegal mining in West Bengal. 2. SHRI RAJENDRA AGRAWAL laid a statement regarding need to set up Driving Training Centre and Automated Inspection and Certification Centre in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. 3. SHRI KHAGEN MURMU laid a statement regarding need to implement Ayushman Bharat Yojana in West Bengal. 4. SHRI ARUN KUMAR SAGAR laid a statement regarding need to set up a sports stadium in Shajjahanpur Parliamentary Constituency, Uttar Pradesh. 5. SHRI BHAGIRATH CHOUDHARY laid a statement regarding need to invite fresh transparent tender process for allocation of book stalls on railway station platforms in the country. 6. SHRIMATI KESHARI DEVI PATEL laid a statement regarding air connectivity between Pragyagraj and Delhi. 7. SHRIMATI RAMA DEVI laid a statement regarding need to provide adequate compensation to farmers who suffered damage to their crops caused by heavy rainfall and hailstorm in Sheohar Parliamentary Constituency, Bihar. Laid on the Table as directed by Chair. 8. SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY laid a statement regarding acquisition of land of Swadeshi Mining and Manufacturing Company Limited in Maharajganj Parliamentary Constituency, Uttar Pradesh. 9. SHRIMATI SHARDA ANIL PATEL laid a statement regarding need to fix the MSP of Arandi and milk in Gujarat. 10. SHRI MITESH PATEL(BAKABHAI) laid a statement regarding need to provide stoppage of various trains at Anand Railway Junction in Gujarat. 11. SHRIMATI RAKSHA NIKHIL KHADSE laid a statement regarding need to review the decision to reduce the financial grants provided to women's study centres by UGC. 12. SHRI SUBHASH CHANDRA BAHERIA laid a statement regarding need to enact population control Act in the country. 13. SHRI CHUNNI LAL SAHU laid a statement regarding implementation of double cropping programme in Mahasamund district in Chhattisgarh. 14. SHRI ASHOK KUMAR RAWAT laid a statement regarding need to set up sports stadiums in Sandila and Bilhaur in Misrikh parliamentary constituency, Uttar Pradesh. 15. SHRI ANURAG SHARMA laid a statement regarding need to conduct employment- oriented skill development programmes for differently- abled persons in the country. 16. SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI laid a statement regarding storage of medicines for desired effect. 17. SHRI MANOJ KOTAK laid a statement regarding need to regulate the programmes telecast by web channels in the country. 18. SHRI RAJMOHAN UNNITHAN laid a statement regarding comprehensive law for combating pandemics. 19. SHRI ANTO ANTONY laid a statement regarding newly declared National Highway 183A in Kerala. 20. DR. A. CHELLAKUMAR laid a statement regarding online sale of medicines. 21. SHRI S.R. PARTHIBAN laid a statement regarding online sale of banned, duplicate and expired medicines. 22. SHRI LAVU SRIKRISHNA DEVARAYALU laid a statement regarding approval to Disha Act. 23. PROF. SOUGATA RAY laid a statement regarding monitoring the business of private banks. 24. SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU laid a statement regarding setting up of Green Field Airport in Gopalpur in Odisha. 25. SHRI MALOOK NAGAR laid a statement regarding need to reduce the price of petrol and diesel in the country. 26. DR. G. RANJITH REDDY laid a statement regarding Hyderabad Nizam's money in British Bank Account. 27. SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SADANAND SULE laid a statement regarding gratuity payment to LIC agents. UNION BUDGET- 2020-21 DEMANDS FOR GRANTS- 2020-21 MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT - Contd. *DR. UMESH G. JADAV *SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE *DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE *SUSHRI S. JOTHIMANI *SHRI JANARDAN SINGH SIGRIWAL *DR. SUJAY VIKHE PATIL *SHRIMATI RAKSHA NIKHIL KHADSE *SHRIMATI DARSHANA VIKRAM JARDOSH *SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIYA *KUMARI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE *SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI *SHRI B. MANICKAM TAGORE *SHRIMATI POONAMBEN MAADAM * Please see Supplement THE MINISTER OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (SHRI THAAWAR CHAND GEHLOT) replying said: I would like to express my gratitude to all those hon. Members who have participated in this Debate. During the Debate, a slew of suggestions were given, the schemes of the Government were appreciated and some of the hon. Members pointed out the shortcomings of the Budget. The Hon. Prime Minister said in his first speech- "My Government will be dedicated to the poor." I along with the Minister of State have been making efforts to translate this statement into reality under his guidance. During the last five years, we have done historic work and implemented Action Plan by virtue of which we succeeded in making 10 Guineas' Book of World Records. We accorded constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes in 2018. This is a historic decision. A high level Board was constituted in order to implement the development work related to the de-notified, nomadic and semi- nomadic communities. We have provided 10% reservations to the economically weaker sections. Moreover, we made laws in order to bring the transgender into the mainstream. We have streamlined the laws made for protection and maintenance of the senior citizens. We have taken up big decision to implement Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana. Under this scheme, 1,24,242 senior citizens have been benefitted and over Rs. 51 crore has been spent on this scheme. Moreover, we will try to make all the Scheduled Caste dominated villages, having population of 500 Adarsh villages by providing financial assistance under Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana by the year 2024-25. I would like to say that Rs. 10,103.57 crore has been earmarked till date for the implementation of the welfare schemes meant for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, we have enhanced the Budget for the empowerment of the physically challenged persons. The expenditure to this end has been increased by Rs. 214.13 crore to 2931.27 crore for the period from 2014-2020 as compared to the period from 2009 to 2014. In addition to it, we are providing 6 types of financial assistance to the physically challenged persons for their educational empowerment. During the last five years and current year, 88692 physically challenged students have been provided scholarships of Rs. 259.67 crore. We are implementing Action Plans for the empowerment of the physically challenged persons by providing financial assistance through NGO under Deen Dayal Divyang Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS). We have formulated Action Plans even for the Skill Development Training for the physically challenged persons. We have also prepared a National Data Base for the physically challenged persons and provided them Unique Identification Cards. So far as the scholarships for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes are concerned, there are huge mess in some of the States but I am happy to tell you that we have paid all the arrears during the last two years and no amount of post metric scholarship and pre-metric scholarship is lying pending for any State upto the year 2018-19. Number of beneficiaries in the field of de-addiction has increased and if we include the current year’s numbers, it is more than six lakh. We have proposed to make the existing law relating to senior citizens better. Several schemes were not very useful. We have clubbed those schemes with others. We are making policy for the senior citizens. The issue relating to the beggars pertains to the states. Yet, the Government issues advisory to the state Governments to ban begging. We have provided funds to set up de-addiction centers in 28 districts in Punjab and these centers are ready. The Government provides assistance for the welfare of Scheduled Caste communities through NGOs. We are implementing a Venture Capital Fund Scheme also. Under this scheme, we support the people of Scheduled Castes in entrepreneurship. We have benefitted 15,91,950 persons through National Scheduled Castes Finance Development Corporation as on date. We also provide special central assistance to the states. By the year 2024-25, we propose to undertake the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes persons by providing Rs.30 lakh to each SC dominated village with population of more than 500.