March 21, 2022
Santanu Sen speaks on The Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2022 and The Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2022
Mr. Deputy Chairman, Sir, when in the last ten days, the price of kerosene has become sky high and the crores
are crying, I do stand here on behalf of the third largest party of this House, the pro-people party, All India Trinamool Congress, led by Madam Mamata Banerjee, who has already done a hatrick a few months back and became the third time Chief Minister in West Bengal. The Central Government is seeking approval for gross additional expenditure of more than Rs.1.58 lakh crore for 2021-22. As our party believes in real facts and figures, I would like to draw the kind attention of the learned Minister to specific points. Firstly, on infrastructure, the Central Government has sought nearly Rs.5,000 crore for capital injection in the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure,
Development and Recapitalisation of public sector general insurance companies. We all know that this NBFID is a Government set up and it was set up as a corporate body with an authorised share capital of Rs. 1 lakh crore. There are huge resources that are going to be mobilised and yet there is no external oversight, external surveillance or external monitoring. Moreover, it is still unclear as to why such an entity has been created when,
in the past, similar such entities have miserably failed. Sir, what has the Government learnt from its previous experiences or failures? Are these being considered before such a huge capital injection? I would say that India’s biggest problem is the lack of a deep and liquid corporate bond market. So, unless the country develops a broad-based liquid bond market, it is difficult to be able to get to the pool of domestic savings into infrastructure.Sir, so far as the insurance sector is concerned, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company Limited, United India Insurance Company Limited and Oriental Insurance Company Limited are the four PSUs in the general insurance sector. Out of these four PSUs, three of them have been suffering losses over the past few years. So far as the National Insurance Company Limited is concerned, the loss in the last year, 2020-21, is nearly Rs.2,500 crore. So far as the Oriental Insurance Company Limited is concerned, it is nearly Rs. 1,500 crore. In the Monsoon Session of
Parliament in 2021, the Government introduced and passed a Bill, the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, which allowed for the privatisation of the public sector insurance companies. There are reports that the Government will sell the United India Insurance Company Limited, which could be followed by the privatisation of one or more of the remaining three. This move will impact crores of retail customers and thousands of persons employed by these organisations. Sir, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had a meeting in July, 2021; there was a proposal which was passed to say that a portion of the Government’s holding in LIC will also be sold out. Sir, we all know that policyholder’s money for policyholder’s welfare was the basic ethics and basic policy of the LIC,
which is going to be jeopardised miserably. Since 1956 when the LIC Act was enacted, we all know that because of certain reasons these assets were undervalued, but now when a portion is going to be opened in the market, there is a big chance of corruption as far as asset values are concerned. It will finally be the shareholders benefit and the policy holder’s loss. The actual fact is, selling family silver has become the Government’s mainstay nowadays. They are selling out the profitable PSUs. They are shouting Bharat Mata Ki Jai and they are selling each and every ornament of Bharat Mata. That is the most unfortunate part of this Government. As far as health is concerned, it is close to my heart because I am a health care personnel, I am a Covid warrior and fortunately I happen to be the past National President of the Indian Medical Association. Let me tell you a fact, the budgetary allocation for India is even much less if you compare the same with some small neighbouring countries. This is very unfortunate. Do you know the quantum of allocation increase for health for 2022-23? It is 0.008 per cent. Yes, it is. The budgetary allocation is so miserable. The health care sector has been at the cusp of recovery from the pandemic and the Government’s apathy, then as well, when thousands died for lack of resources. We have seen how miserable the situation was during this Covid pandemic. We had seen the dead bodies which were floating in the river. We had seen the international journal, LANCET. Many of the countries were criticising our Covid handling policy. Our vaccination policy was being
miserably criticised, but unfortunately, we didn’t take any lesson from this. Also, in the Supplementary Demands for Grants, the Ministry has asked for a mere Rs. 500 crores in addition to its initial demand. This shows the inadequacy of the funds being allocated during a pandemic that has caused lakhs of deaths in the country. Not only is there sub-par allocation, but also poor utilization. Let me cite some examples. Allocation in 2021-22 was seven per cent less than the Actual Expenditure for 2020-21. Importantly, the transfer to States for Covid-19 vaccination has fallen from Rs. 39,000 crores in 2021-22’s Revised Estimates to Rs. 5000 crores in 2022-23 Budget Estimates. This is a huge decrease. This Government has never believed in cooperative federalism. That is the main problem. We have seen faulty vaccination policy on International Yoga Day and, on our Prime Minister’s birthday, there was a sharp rise in vaccination. On the next day, there was a shortfall in the vaccination. It is absolutely shameful. The problem is, this
Government is full of egos. My suggestion is, why don’t you keep apart your ego and why don’t you follow the golden health policy of Bengal, free health for all? Swasthya Sathi Card empowers women to get her parents treated by Swasthya Sathi Card. This is a unique policy in the universe. Why does our Government not follow the policy of Bengal? I don’t know. It is because they are fully egoistic. As far as MGNREGA is concerned, the Government has run out of money to fund MGNREGA project. Actually, the allocation for this year saw a decrease of 25 per cent from the Revised Estimate of 2021-22 and a decrease of 34 per cent from the actual expenditure of 2020-21. In the Supplementary Demands for Grants, the Ministry has requested additional funds of Rs. 9,668 crores. Why this
massive discrepancy? The reason is, a few years back, our learned Prime Minister said that in this project they do nothing but digging ditches. He is projecting this idea about the MGNREGA policy and he ridiculed nearly 80
million people in his speech in 2015. We all remember it. What are we doing in Bengal? Let me cite an example. In our party manifesto, when it was restored in 2021 Assembly Elections, our Respected Chief Minister said that
the wages have been doubled and 100 days guarantee has been made to 200 days guarantee. It is so much important a project in our State of West Bengal and is so much neglected a project in the rest of the country. As far as food subsidy is concerned, the problem actually is that the Government wanted to dismantle everything. If you look at the Global Hunger Index, we are ranked at 101 out of 116 countries! Over 4 out of 5 households in the country saw a fall in income and 4.5 crore Indians fall into extreme poverty in 2020! And, as per Oxfam’s ‘Inequality Kills’ Report,
inequality and poverty lead to death of 21,000 per day! Moreover, insofar as the World Bank Report is concerned, malnutrition is a key issue and India is in the worst situation when compared to other BRICS Member countries. If
you look at the Report of FAO of the UN, it says that India can never reach zero hunger by 2030 if one looks at the way the declining is going on. Despite this abysmal performance in ensuring provision of basic things, the food subsidy bill has fallen from Rs. 2,86,469 crores to 2,06,831 crores in 2022-23. So far as fertilizer subsidy is concerned, in the fiscal year 2020-21, the Government spent Rs. 1,28,000 crores. In the Union Budget of 2021-22,
it was reduced to Rs. 79,000 crores. Due to agrarian crisis, this was revised to RS. 1,40,000 crores and, now, it has been reduced by 25 per cent, thereby it has come down to Rs. 1.05 lakh crores. Sir, the BJP Government had promised to double the farmers’ income. Our Government, in our State of West Bengal, led by our Madam promised in 2011 that we will double the income and, now, it has become triple. This puts the target income in 2022 at Rs. 21,146. But, unfortunately, it is just half now. Sir, India and the entire world has witnessed the largest farmers’ agitation. We have seen farmers committing suicide. We have seen farmers getting run over by the Minister’s car and that Minister’s son was bailed out in the State during elections! The entire country is a witness to it. Sir, so far as women and children are concerned, the Budget allocation for Mission Shakti was increased by just 2.3 per cent, at a time when crimes against women were as high as nearly 4 lakh in a single year! Sir, just come to the State of West Bengal, the entire budgetary allocation for Beti-Bachao-Beti-Padhao is less than a State project like Kanyashree
which was awarded internationally at Hague City of Netherlands and our hon. Chief Minister took that award.
Sir, so far as education is concerned, as we have seen, there are a lot of controversies in the National Education Policy 2020, which are yet to be clarified. We have seen the Budget allocation made last year for education saw
a 6 per cent decrease when compared to allocation made in 2020-21. This is huge, considering the fact that education is the bedrock of development and future growth. The Ministry has also made an additional demand of Rs. 4 lakh crores. This is shocking considering the impact of COVID-induced lockdown had on education where millions of students suffered and many had to quit studies. But, look at Bengal, our UN Award for Kanyashree Scheme has
brought 67 lakh girls to 18,000 schools and colleges. And, it is absolutely a laudable step taken by our Madam.
Sir, I conclude by saying that I had raised many major issues like health, education, food subsidy, agriculture, women and child, etc. But, at the same time, I also know this Government has no answers. I do believe that the
people, at large, of this country are already making up their mind to give a befitting reply to this Government in the coming days. Thank you.
