June 11, 2014
Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar speaks on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address | Transcript
Thank you, Chairman, Sir. I rise on behalf of All India Trinamool Congress and my leader,Kumari Mamata Banerjee, in support of the Address delivered by His Excellency, the President of India in the Parliament on the 9th of June. Let this great expectation of hope which our hon. President expressed towards a fruitful Session be fulfilled and not the Session turn into despair. All India Trinamool Congress, who have come here with a very large mandate of the people, in spite of being in power for the last three years, has received more than 30 per cent of the votes in our State. The point to rejoice is that we have fulfilled the commitment towards the women by giving nearly 30 per cent of the seats to candidates and the people have kept up their promise by electing very large number of women which is again nearly 30 per cent. The Ruling Party here has also come with a very large mandate. I do hope that the Ruling Party keeps up to this great mandate given by the people. On behalf of our Party, AITC, we promise to play a very constructive role. We promise to be by the side of the Government for all their pro-people agenda –whenever they stand by the poor people of the country, whenever they do take up issues which concern the poor people, we will be by their side, but definitely we will be working as democratic watchdog and we will be critical on issues which are anti-people and anti-democracy. Like in the Bible, the God said, ‘Let there be light”. Tamaso ma Jyotir Gamaya! Let this mandate act towards enlightenment and fulfilment of the dreams of the poor, fulfilment of that part of the electorate who is not represented here, fulfilment of the homeless, the jobless, the skilled and the unskilled labourers, the tortured, the last man in the last line – let this mandate work towards their benefit; and we are by your side! But let us also act towards that kind of social justice in which the poor people get two meals a day; they get jobs; they get homes; the Address is really worth appreciating – I was going through the speech of His Excellency, the President – it has been promised that pucca homes are going to be built for the poor people, and the road infrastructure is going to be given a lot of attention, which the rural India really needs. Our hon. Health Minister is present here now – I would cite certain problems of this country. We have promised here equal rights for the women and reservation for women in the Parliament. But we have not been able to fulfil the MDG-5; we have not been able to fulfil our target of bringing down the maternal mortality rate and the infant mortality rate. If we look into the cause, the last village which does not have a pucca road, does not have electric connection to use a refrigerator, by which we can store some ampoules of Methargin which might be required when she is bleeding to death, from child birth; so, let us look into this matter very seriously and let us try to build the roads up to the last village; let us have a particular agenda taken up for road building, for electricity supply to the last house, and also, towards educating our girl child.Bitya hamari jaan hai, un pe hum qurbaan hain. Let us look at it in a comprehensive fashion. Here I would like to refer to the agenda taken up by our Chief Minister, hon. Mamata Banerjee through her Kanyashree Prakalpa. What is Kanyashree Prakalpa? It says that if we are educating our girl child up to Class VII the State Government would give financial support from Class VIII onwards for her to complete her studies. When she reaches the age of 18 and remains unmarried she will get more financial support either to study or to pursue any business of her choice. The age 18 and the term ‘unmarried at 18’ have been purposely kept because till the age of 18 a girl does not attain proper maturity, proper physical strength to give birth to a child. So, by remaining unmarried till 18, she remains unmarried and educated and she becomes mature enough to give birth to healthy children. So, we get a nation of healthy mothers giving rise to healthy children. I think the Union Government can take cue from her and start a Prakalpa like Kanyashree Prakalpa which is really laudable. As far as food is concerned, which is a basic necessity for life, our State of West Bengal has been able to fulfil the demand of food and extend it to more than 3.22 crore of poor people. We have been able to counter the Left wing terrorism by giving out rice at Rs.2 per kilo. But we would require more support from the Central Government for this because there are still many people in this country who are unfit, who are poor and who are looking for this kind of support. The other point is , sanitation which is very-very important. I have read in the news that sometimes girls are tortured or raped when they go out because there are no toilets in their houses and they have to go outside and the miscreants catch hold of them. So, we need more toilets not only to take care of these women when they are going to toilet but also as a means of cutting down on crime. Our State would require more funds to build toilets for public purposes and women alike. So, I would request through my speech here to have more funds for the State Government The State Government should be taken into confidence for different issues including Madrasa education that has been mentioned in His Excellency’s speech. We are doing very well as far as that is concerned. Even as far as border issues are concerned, our State has three international borders with countries like Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. So, before any decision is taken regarding these international borders, we do wish to stress that our State Government be taken into confidence and the matter be discussed with them because it is going to be easier that way. It has also been said here that hospitals of the All India Institute of Medical Science kind are being planned for different States. Here also I would request you that before the site is selected the State Government should be consulted because it is up to the State Government to decide as to which part of the State requires it the most and where the land is available. Our State Government has a very clear-cut land policy; land to be used for agriculture, land to be used for industry and the land to be used for building a hospital. So, before you progress we would request you to definitely engage us. As far as the BPL list is concerned, it requires a serious looking into because we have not looked at it for many-many years. As far as the rail is concerned, I would like to bring to your notice that the maximum advancement had been made during the time when my Leader hon. Mamata Banerjee was the Railway Minister. She not only gave izzat to the poor people by giving them this whole monthly ticket of Izzat but the revenue collection had increased during her tenure. It rose to 88.74 per cent higher than the previous years as far as passenger collection is concered and 8.56 per cent for freight collection. By segregating the freight and passenger segments, she had already promised and took up the agenda in her Vision 2020 document of enhancing the speed of trains. I am happy to see that this has found a place of pride in today’s agenda. But I would again request you to look up that document in which she had already started the work of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor which covers Rewari and Vadodara sections and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor from Khurja Ludhiana section. You have taken up these issues from her 2020 Vision. So I thank you on that count but we would also like to stress that metro railway that was supposed to have started all around the city of Kolkata should be given some priority because she had already sanctioned the money. But it has been lying incomplete and it appears to be abandoned as my learned colleague tells me. But I would really request you to look into that because my leader, Kumari Mamata Banerjee, when she was the Railway Minster, had taken it up. She had also given to ladies, the Matrabhoomi locals and to the unemployed youth air-conditioned locals. So, I wish that those points are also taken into consideration. In the end, I would like to mention that I did not find in these points anything about the Dreamliner. The Ministry of Civil Aviation must look at it that the Dreamliners which are being used have been found worldwide to be defective. They might be a cause of catastrophe very soon. Only two-three days back in the flight which went from Delhi to Kolkata people fell sick because the oxygen level in the cabin fell short of their breathing. So I think these airliners should be taken away from flying before a large calamity happens.
