Sir, I have one one specific question. How many halts and railways stations are not covered after Covid? After Covid, you withdrew services from many stations. Now, three-four years later, I am
asking specifically, which stations and halts are deprived of railway stoppage? That is all.
Hon. Speaker, Sir, kindly see that a fair trial would only be there when an affected person is being heard. If an affected is not being heard, there cannot be any fair trial.… There cannot be any fair trial. Sir, with great respect to you, whatever I am saying, kindly, do not take it as an exception. This is the Parliament. We are the Members. Today, we are deciding the rights of a person. When we are deciding the rights of a person, then we are all acting as a quasi-judicial body. Before a quasi-judicial body, an affected person should be heard. … I would like to request you to kindly allow Sushri Mahua Moitra to be heard. That is the request that I am going to make. When we speak, there would be a privilege issue against us but they keep on disturbing us every day.… This is the fundamental principle of law that a person against whom the chargesheet has been brought and persons who are bringing these charges, these charges should be established in according with the procedure of law. Who is the main person? The mainperson is Darshan Hiranandani. Who has relied upon his statement? His name is Jai Anant Dehadrai. Who has brought it? He is one of the hon. Members, Nishikant Dubey. On what basis is it going on? It is on the basis of an affidavit of Darshan Hiranandani. His affidavit has been brought. Darshan Hiranandani has not even been brought as a witness. His statement has not been testified. This is his affidavit. No affidavit can be relied upon unless that person comes and says: “This is my affidavit. Whatever I am saying or whatever contents are there, are correct.” … Thereafter, Sir, in a quasi-judicial proceeding, right of cross-examination should be given. That is called a fair hearing. The right of hearing is not a fanciful thing. It has to be made a meaningful right. .… The way they had made these allegations whether it is Jai Anant Dehadrai or Darshan Hiranandani or Nishikant Dubey, in the same way Mahua Moitra is having a right to cross-examine each and every person. .… But, that has not been allowed. What has happened earlier is not the point, the point is that the law is not made on an island, it is being made in our country on the basis of the interpretations given by the Supreme Court of India. .… It has been clearly said in various judgements given by the Supreme Court that if an affected person has not been given an opportunity to defend himself or herself in a proper manner, then, it is a violation of the principle of natural justice. Theprinciples of natural justice are implicit in Article 14 of the Constitution of India. … Therefore, Sir, not only the right to be heard is being violated but Mahua Moitra ji’s right as protected under Article 14 of the Constitution of India has been violated by the Ethics Committee and also today by the House itself. There is a violation. … The Constitutional violation is being made. … Sir, the 2005 cash-for-query case is being repeatedly referred to here. Kindly come to Page No. 18 of the Report of that Committee. Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal was appointed as the Chairman of the said Committee. At Serial No. 12, it says: “The Committee examined Shri Anirudh Bahal, Ms. Suhasini Raj and Shri Kumar Badal, representatives of the Portal Cobrapost.com.” … सर, आपको टाइि देना होगा। Sir, they were examined. … Here, Mr. Hiranandani has not been examined at all. … It is just an eyewash. … Hon. Minister, you always have the right to speak but kindly excuse me. Sir, please give me time. You are not allowing Mahua Moitra ji to speak. Kindly allow me to speak. … Now, Sir, I am coming to what this Report says. At serial No. 43, whatever has been said, who has said it? … It has not been said by Shri Darshan Hiranandani. … What Shri Jai has said, everything has been written here. … Sir, I have some more points. Kindly give me a chance to speak. … Today, I am just praying before you to kindly render justice to me. Sir, it has relied upon Section 43 of the Information Technology Act. It has been said that it is a violation of Section 43. Let us assume for argument’s sake that the allegations are correct. Where does Section 43 say that if password is given to anyone, it is an offence under the Information Technology Act? If anyone uses my computer without my consent, then Section 43 would be applicable here. But that has not been done here. … Sir, please, for God’s sake, give me some time to speak. Sir, kindly see the recommendation and the conclusion part. … According to that, it has been proved that cash has been taken. Where is that? … Where is this finding based on facts? How much cash has been taken? … It is not based on evidence. … Now, I am coming to a very important question. … I will just conclude. … With great respect to the hon. Speaker and to all the hon. Members of this House, I would like to say that this House does not have the power to remove someone as a Member. The Constitution has provided a provision for disqualification. This provision of disqualification has been provided by the Constitution in Tenth Schedule under Article 102. It does not come within that. You have the power to suspend a Member under Rule 374 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha itself. Therefore, let us assume for arguments sake, there is no power with the House itself to expel or to remove Sushri Mahua Moitra. The Constitution does not permit this. The rule does not permit this. Even if any precedent has been there, that is contrary to the rules. No precedent or no rule can stand above the Constitutional provisions.
Sir, on this issue, her speech has been recorded in the Committee… Now, it is the property of the House. Whom you are going to expel today from 17th Lok Sabha now, is known to everybody … Today, they have placed the Report before the Parliament. But the whole report had been exposed to the media long before. It is nothing new today … It is only the Ethics Committee which has done this wrong thing… They have exposed it before the media and media exposed the Report… It is not that they have submitted the Report today… The Report has been placed against Sushri Mahua Moitra… One hon. Member has spoken about many allegations against her… Then, what will be the harm in giving her a chance to speak for minimum ten minutes?… Allow her to speak before you expel her… Why will she not be allowed to speak for a few minutes?…What is wrong in it?… Sir, I urge upon you with folded hands to allow her to speak on behalf of Trinamool Congress Party and as a speaker of our Party…
Sir, allegations against Ms. Mahua Moitra have been placed by the hon. Member. Just now, I heard them. Then, who can be the best person to reply to these allegations? It is the Parliament. That speech will be on record. If Ms. Mahua Moitra is not allowed to give her explanation, the Parliament’s idea would not be fulfilled. So, I would request you that as a speaker from our Party, Ms. Mahua Moitra be allowed to speak. My party’s spokesperson will be Ms. Mahua Moitra herself because allegations are against her. Wild allegations have been made. Whether the allegations are true or not, let them be explained by her… I think today the House will take a decision to expel her…We know it…
Thank you, Sir, for giving me the scope. Sir, as we know, the tigers are gradually going towards extinction and sometimes they are coming out of the forests because of severe deforestation at different parts of the country. Through you, my humble submission and my question to our learned Minister: Is the Government going to take any special steps to prevent this severe deforestation across the country?
Sir, the Sagar Island situated in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, popularly known as Ganga Sagar is not only having a beautiful sea beach and coastal area, but is also one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in the country from time immemorial. My supplementary question to 48 (c) is: Will the hon. Minister be pleased to consider inclusion of Ganga Sagar under the Darshan or PRASHAD Scheme for the development of the place as spiritual circuit or coastal circuit?
Sir, I thank you for giving me the opportunity. I would like to ask the hon. Minister a question on the foreign visits from 2020 till date. Have any Union Ministers, during their foreign visits, attended events or meetings organised or held by an organization called, Overseas Friends of the BJP, which is a unit of the supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party in different countries. Have any Ministers attended events of the Overseas Friends of the BJP, and, if yes, on what grounds have they attended these events during their foreign visits?
Sir, recently four migrant workers from Bihar died while cleaning a septic tank in Surat, Gujarat. The Union Government has stated that there have been no deaths due to manual scavenging in the country. However, the Government’s own data states that over 300 people have died in the last five years due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. Manual scavenging has been prohibited in India since 2013. However, dalits and tribles are forced to take up these jobs mainly due to poverty and lack of employment elsewhere. The historical repression and marginalization of these groups still exists, leaving them no other source to earn a living. The Government needs to take urgent measures to ensure that no person should have to demean himself by cleaning sewers and septic tanks manually. The law should be enforced strictly in this regard, especially on private firms who employ such persons on per diem basis which do not show them on their rolls, often without providing them any protective gears. The technological solutions need to be enhanced and mechanical desludging and the use of robots should become the norms. Selfemployment scheme for rehabilitation of manual scavengers need to be revived. Besides one-time cash component, the emphasis needs to be put on skilling and providing them soft loans to enable them to carve out alternative means of earning, livelihood or other career. We must ensure dignity of life and livelihood for every Indian citizen. Thank you.
Sir, I rise to support the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill which envisages setting up of a tribal university in Telangana possibly in Warangal which is a district town of Telangana. The Minister must be lamenting why this Bill was not passed earlier. If it was done before Telangana elections, maybe his party would have got a few more seats. But that is neither here nor there. Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, as the HRD Minister, is in control of the best institutes of India like IIT, IIM, and IISER. They are all under him. So, here is really an opportunity of improving the quality of higher education in India. It is a matter of some wonder that in spite of all the money allotted, none of the Indian Institutes are among the top 200 institutions in the world. What can we do to improve the academic standards and make them comparable to the universities in England, America, France and even Singapore, leave alone China? That is the main question. Anyway, he has proposed this university for tribals. He is eminently suitable because he was a student of anthropology, and the study of tribals is done in anthropology. There is social anthropology, political anthropology which should be studied. Mr. Mahtab gave me one idea. As has been mentioned by Kumari Agatha K. Sangma, in the North-Eastern Hill University, local languages like Khasi and Garo are taught. So, in this Tribal University, I hope, the tribal languages like Santali and Mundari will be taught. My idea is, since you are spending so much money, let the university be set up at one place but it can have campuses in several tribal dominated areas. For example, in Bengal, we have two tribal dominated areas – Jhargram and Dooars. If we set up some campuses outside, this will also give a boost to tribal education. But may I mention that in spite of striving for excellence in central universities, the situation is still bad. The cases of suicides are taking place among students in these higher education institutes. Students are dropping out of their courses. Sir, we have a University called the University of Hyderabad in the State of Telangana. We all know about the suicide case of Rohith Vemula. It rattled the whole country how a Scheduled Caste boy felt so frustrated in a Central University that he had to commit suicide. It created a lot of dispute in the whole country. Mr. Minister is from Odisha. In Odisha, one Central University was set up in Koraput which is totally a tribal dominated district. But it has no faculty at all. I know a lady who used to be the Vice Chancellor and never went to Koraput. She used to commute from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar and back. I will request the hon. Minister to give attention to this University in tribal dominated area in his own home State. Whatever it is, let him have a good Vice Chancellor. There is nothing to prevent it. He has got all the power. The other thing is, there are 36 Central Universities but I often hear a complaint that the scholarships given to the students are not sufficient. Some students from Puducherry approached me. There is a Central University there. They said that they ask their parents to send money to them so that they can continue their research. If you want to improve the quality of research, then you have to increase the scholarship amount. Further, I would say that it is a good idea as I said, but the Minister has the chance. Now he is also a very important man in his own Party. He has got a decent clout. Let him put his clout to good use for the improvement of the central institutions. Some of the central universities are very good like the Delhi University and the JNU. They are very good. They are high standard universities. Even the Hyderabad University is also very good. But some universities are not up to the mark. Lastly, I will ask him one thing. There is a single central university in West Bengal. In 1857, that was the first university in Calcutta. But VisvaBharati is in shambles. The last Vice-Chancellor, who claimed to be close to the BJP, has destroyed it. Now he had even set up a flex board depicting Visva-Bharati being given a heritage status by the UNESCO. Only the names of the Vice-Chancellor and the Prime Minister were there. The name of Rabindranath Tagore was not there. Now that has been removed by the local people. But why did Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan not remove it? Why did they allow the Vice-Chancellor to run riot? Will there be an inquiry held against the previous Chancellor over his acts of omission and commission? As I said, I support this Bill. The tribal people deserve even more. We have not been able to give them enough, at least, educationally. If we can improve their condition, if we can keep the tribal students in the campuses, prevent their suicides, and give them more scholarships, then it would be a good thing. In this regard, I remember the contribution made by Mr. Bibhu Prasad Das who did a study of the tribes in the North-East. He suggested setting up of universities for the tribals. You can go into the archives and look into his recommendations. Due to his recommendations, the NorthEastern Hill University (NEHU) was formed just as the Rabindranath Tagore’s Institute was converted into a Visva-Bharati Central University with Jawaharlal Nehru’s intervention. With these words, I again support the Bill which is a forward step towards uplifting the cause of the tribals in this country. Thank you, Sir
Thank you hon. Chairman Sir, I would like to raise a very serious problem of my Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency, which I have been raising in this august House for the last ten years. In this area, flooding is a major problem whenever there is even slightest rainfall. Khanakul is such an area which is very easily flooded if there is rain because when the water of Mundeswari river reaches Rupnarayan river, the water immediately flows back and the villages are completely submerged. So when Khanakul Block 1 and Block 2 are flooded, the entire area becomes disconnected. There is a bamboo bridge over Mundeswari to connect Natibpur and Ganeshpur. Several times the Central government has been requested to address this issue but so far, nothing has been done. If this bridge is strengthened it will serve as a nice connection between Howrah and Hooghly. Along with that, Khanakul Blocks 1 and 2 will also be connected. Moreover, another bridge to join Khanakul and West Midnapore, the Garer Ghat bridge, which is over Rupnarayan river is also very important. These two bridges are urgently needed. These bridges will prove to be highly beneficial to the people of my Khanakul and Arambagh parliamentary constituency; the common people or the farmers of the region who have to travel to Howrah or West Midnapore for various purposes regularly will get the advantage. So through you Sir I request Hon. Irrigation Minister of Central government to immediately take up the project without further delay. Thank you Sir
