Idris Ali speaks on the Supplementary Demands for Grants

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Hon Speaker Madam, I am deeply grateful to you because you have given me the opportunity to speak. At the same time, আমি কৃতজ্ঞতা জানাই সেই মহান দেশপ্রেমিক, মহান নেত্রী, জাতীয়তাবাদী নেত্রী মমতা ব্যানার্জিকে যিনি পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী, যার আশির্ব্বাদ ছাড়া আমি এখানে আসতে পারতাম না।

Madam, every third person in an Indian city today will be a youth in about next seven years. The median individual in India will be 29 years making it youngest country in the world. The unemployment rate in India, hon Madam, is estimated at 3.52 per cent, which is about 35 million; people are jobless. Hon Speaker Madam, Central Government during its tenure of four years never tried to balance the ongoing mismatch between the efforts of a cultivator (a farmer) and their income.

Madam, pensioners of EPS ’95 scheme till today are getting minimum pension of Rs 1000 per month. The government has not reviewed pension as per the present market. Then, where is the commitment of social security of senior citizens?

Hon Madam, in the Railway Budget, আমি আপনার মাধ্যমে কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার ও মন্ত্রীকে জানাতে চাই যে, ২০১৬-১৭ বাজেটে আমার কেন্দ্র বসিরহাটের জন্য পাঁচ লক্ষ টাকা অনুমোদন করা হয়েছিল। বসিরহাটে রেলওয়ে গেট, ভ্যাবলা হল্ট স্টেশন তৈরীর জন্য, কিন্তু দুই বছর পার হয়ে গেছে, কোনও কাজ হয়নি। একই জিনিস ঘটেছে আমার কেন্দ্রের লেবুতলায়; সেখানেও হয়নি।

আমি আরেকটা অনুরোধ জানাবো কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের কাছে। যখন মমতা বন্দোপাধ্যায় রেলমন্ত্রী ছিলেন তখন গরিব মানুষদের জন্য ‘ইজ্জত টিকিট’ আর ‘ইজ্জত পাস’-এর ব্যবস্থা করা হয়েছিল। কিন্তু তথাকথিত ‘গরীবের বন্ধু’ কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার যা চালু ছিল তা পুনরায় চালু করা যায় না? এই জন্য মাননীয় রেলমন্ত্রীকে, ম্যাডাম, আপনার মাধ্যমে আমি আবেদন জানাচ্ছি।

In case of scholarship to minority students of the country, it has been noticed that during the last four years the release of funds is constantly lower than the previous years. Hon Madam Speaker, it is very unfortunate that as on June 2018, the Centre has released only Rs 5.52 crore to different scholarships to meritorious students, against the budget estimate of Rs 74 crores; in maximum cases the state governments are still waiting for the scholarship amount for years.

Hon Madam, before I conclude I urge the House to confirm the actual care of women and children, real employment, protection of senior citizens and to come forward with practical development of the society with time-bound commandment.

Madam, I am deeply grateful to you.

Saugata Roy speaks on the Supplementary Demands for Grants

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Sir, I rise to speak on the Supplementary Demands for Grants and Demands for excess grants moved by Shri Piyush Goyal, currently holding charge of finance, corporate affairs, railways and coal. (He is ) the most burdened minister in the history of independent India.

Sir, the supplementary demands are to the extent of Rs 11,697 crore, but of this the budget outgo is only about Rs 5,951 crore, and rest are made by savings of the department, to the tune of Rs 5,745 crore.

Sir, before going into the main subject there are some points that need to be mentioned. Mr Venugopal has spoken about the Rafale deal. It is one of the biggest scandals of independent India. The country is going to lose Rs 2,500 crore in the the Rafale deal and the Reliance Aero which is going to make Rs 25,000 crore, which is already in debt. Mr junior Ambani’s company is set to gain Rs 25,000 crore. I think a full fledged investigation should be done on the Rafale deal.

Sir, Mr Nishant was speaking about a certain aspect of the economy. I want to remind Mr Goyal that last month GST collection was less by Rs 40,000 crore and this is not a good state of the economy. I also want to mention Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. As we know, Mehul Choksi has taken shelter in Antigua and Nirav Modi is God knows where. Till now, I don’t know where is Lalit Modi. I had spoken about the ‘Modi syndicate’ earlier and I hope the government clears the air regarding this.

Sir, Mr Nishant trying to said that the economy is in a very bad position. Let me remind the Government that inflation has touched 5.8% in the highest length. Sir, I may also mention that NPAs have risen to 11.6% of their advances. Many banks have stopped giving advances at all, which speaks very badly about economy.

Sir, the actual number of employees fell to 406 million from 2016 to 2017-18. The government which had promised to provide 20 million employments per year, is actually faced with falling employment.

Sir, the current account deficit is now going to cross 2% in 2018-19. The investment ratio has steeply declined from 31.3% of GDP in 2013-14 and has remained stagnant at about 28.5%. All is not well in the state of Modi (not of Denmark).

Sir, so the government tries to cover it up with polarising stands as they have done in Assam with the NRC, as they will attempt to do maybe in Ayodhya, I shall not deal with that.

Sir, the other thing I want to mention is that Mr Nishant was talking about how India has progressed. May I mention one thing, what is India’s share in the world exports? It is currently 1.8% of the world exports. They say India is the fifth largest economy, Modi Ji ko sab log khatir karte hain, but exports remain at 1.8% and also bank credit growth hit a 20-year low at the present moment. Situation is not very conducive.

Sir, I also want to mention that the government’s announcement of MSP falls far short of Swaminathan Commission report and desire. So how will we give the farmer his due? How shall we prevent farmers’ suicide? These are not very clear.

With this state of the economy Sir, Mr Goyal has come forward with his demands for supplementary grants.

I may mention that the biggest grants in the Supplementary Budget is being given to Air India, to the tune of Rs 980 crore. Sir, what is the state of Air India? Air India is our national carrier. The government had announced that it would disinvest Air India. They could not find a global buyer, global partner in this effort.

Now what is the state of Air India? The pilots are not getting their salaries regularly. When we travel by aircrafts, the air hostesses complain that they are not being paid their incentives. Now, if a pilot has mental unrest, how do I expect him to fly a modern dreamliner? This is putting the lives of the people at risk; these pilots are the best pilots in the world. This is what the Government has done talking about disinvestment in Air India for two years.

Sir, I may also mention in this regard other things about Air India. They have a financial restructuring plan, this was approved by previous UPA regime. But that financial restructuring plan has not come through. The Turn Around Plan (TAP) includes budgetary support amounting to Rs 30,231 crore spread over 10 years ie. up to FY 2020-21 and also equity support for the payment of principal/ interest of the non-convertible debentures. The national carrier has a debt of Rs 48,000 crore. I would like to know from the hon Minister, since he has proposed this (amount of) Rs 980 crore for Air India, what is the Turn Around Plan for Air India and how does he hope to write off the debts or deal with the debts?

Sir, the other thing is the rest of the supplementary demands are not very controversial and are all of small amounts so I am not dealing with them at length, Sir. But they have give a supplementary demand of Rs 1057 crore for defence. It is defence which is in peril with regards to Rafael jets. So, defence which has a budget of more than Rs 2 lakh crore, is really in jeopardy, I can mention that, Sir.

The total supplementary grants that has been given, is Rs 1 lakh each to various subjects. At this stage when the Minister has come with this first batch of supplementary demands, there will be more supplementary demands for the current year, I want to ask him that why doesn’t he enlighten the House about the state of the economy? He has spoken a lot about the ‘Ujjwala Yojana’, the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’, the ‘Mudra Yojana’. I want to know what is the cumulative effect of all these schemes?

Mr Goyal has held several meetings with bankers but he has not been able to show a way out of the present morass in the banks, with the total Non-Performing Assets amounting to Rs 9 lakh crores, and banks like Dena Bank asked to stop lending altogether. How will the economy develop, how will capital formation take place if the banks, the principle engine of growth in economy, are in such a horrible position?

Sir, one interesting thing I would like to say is that Rs 280 crore, small amount, has been sanctioned for providing grants for creating capital assets for developing modern freight village at Varanasi. Why Varanasi? You have so many places in Bangla on the banks of the Ganges. Why no freight terminal in Bangla? That’s a matter I would like to know.

The other is Ministry of Textiles has been given Rs 1,500 crore. I want to know what the condition of the textile weavers is today. The government subsidies and grants are not reaching them.

All in all we are living in a difficult situation. After demonetisation, the GDP growth had fallen to 6.1%. The Ministry says that ‘green shoots’ are showing, GDP growth may increase this year but the way farmers are committing suicide speaks another tale.

Sir, we have to support supplementary demands for grants because we have to let the government run. But I have to say that all is not well in the state of Mr Modi. The Modis are all escaping from the country; Nirav and Lalit and their friend Mehul Choksi and we don’t know which Modi will escape from the country next.

Thank you, Sir.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay lays report of Standing Committee on Railways on ‘New Railway Catering Policy, 2017’

PRESS RELEASE

LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
NEW DELHI

TWENTY FIRST REPORT (16th LOK SABHA) OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS (2017-18) ON “NEW RAILWAY CATERING POLICY 2017”

7th August, 2018

Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay, M.P. and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Railways (2017-18), presented today in Lok Sabha the Twenty First Report of the Standing Committee on Railways on ‘New Railway Catering Policy 2017’. Some of the important observations/recommendations made in the Report are as follows:

 

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL REPORT

 

 

Festivals to be celebrated in State libraries

The Bengal Government has decided to celebrate various festivals at Government libraries across the State, in a bid to make them more popular. A total of 52 festivals have been decided upon.

This is the first time that the Library Services Department has made such a decision.

Religious festivals like Raksha Bandhan, Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja, Buddha Purnima, Bijoya Dashami, Christmas, Eid-ul-Fitr, Fateha Dohaz Daham, etc., English and Bengali New Years, important days like Library Day, Women’s Day, etc., and birth and death anniversaries of famous people like Mahatma Gandhi, and well-known authors, scientists, sportspersons, etc. will be celebrated.

Funds would be allocated to each of the libraries for the purpose. Notes would be sent beforehand to the libraries from the Library Department regarding the festival and its importance, and how it should be celebrated.

Teachers, lawyers, representatives of local clubs, Durga Puja committees and market committees, and eminent people would be invited to these functions.

 

Tapas Mandal speaks on The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Thank you, Deputy Speaker Sir, for allowing me to speak on The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018. I am much thankful to my party leader, Mamata Banerjee, my other party leaders and Trinamool Congress, and the people of Bengal belonging to the SC and ST communities.

Our leader Mamata Banerjee is trying hard to protect the people from the downtrodden classes. In Bengal, our leader cares for them and that is not my claim. The report itself says that SCs and STs are taken care of very well and are safe in the state of Bengal, as compared to the other States of India.

Today we are very happy to see the Amendment, long awaited and a welcome decision by the Government. The Government has brought this Amendment following huge pressure in this country – agitation and a lot of unrest among the Dalit communities – and due to this huge pressure the Government was bound to come to Parliament with this Amendment. It is not their intention but they have been pressured to do so. My point is that if they were really willing to make this Amendment, why then did they not come up with an Ordinance earlier? The judgement of the Supreme Court came on March 20, in the case Subhash Kashinath Mahajan vs the State of Maharashtra, where the Supreme Court gave the following judgement: “The essence is that the preliminary inquiry must be prior to FIR if the member of the scheduled caste community or scheduled tribe community was harassed by the common people.”

Another concern of mine is that if the Government was really in favour of this Amendment, why then was the judge who gave a judgement against the Dalit community in the Supreme Court appointed by the Government the very next day in the National Green Tribunal? Why? This is against the interests of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities of this country. However, we feel relieved that our party, under the guidance of Mamata Banerjee, supports the Bill and the Amendment since coming to power in Bangla. People from the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities feel safe in our State and Mamata Banerjee cares for them. This is not just our claim but is borne out by the evidence of the public report of the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau).

If we look at the national statistics, we can see that since 2014, Bihar is the state which has recorded the highest rate of crime against the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations. For crimes against the scheduled castes specifically, Madhya Pradesh, a BJP-ruled State is at the top, with 43.4 per cent of the crimes. For crimes against the scheduled tribe population, Rajasthan, again a BJP-ruled state, is at the top, with 12.9 per cent of the crimes. It is a shame for the country that wherever the NDA or the BJP are in power, crimes against SCs and STs are the highest.

Sir, you see, seven members of a Dalit family were publicly beaten up by a group of ‘gau-rakshaks’ for skinning a dead cow in Una town in Gujarat on May 21, 2018. Five people were accused of flogging Mukesh Vaniya, a 30-year old Dalit man, who tried to get out of a factory, to death in Rajkot, Gujarat. So a lot of crimes against SCs and STs have happened in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and in so many other States where the BJP is in power.

This Amendment proposes that preliminary enquiry shall not be required for registration of a first information report (FIR) against any person and secondly, the investigating officer shall not require approval for arrest, if necessary, of any person. We support these clauses. We support them for the sake of the SC and ST communities. I think nobody in this Parliament will oppose this section and this Amendment because it is a long-pending demand. It is the demand of the depressed classes, it is the demand of the SC and ST communities and all of us support this Amendment.

If we look at the statistics, then we will see over 1.44 lakh cases of atrocities against scheduled castes and 23,408 cases of atrocities against scheduled tribes came for trial before the judiciary in 2016, as per the last available data of NCRB. In the case of scheduled castes, trial was completed in only 10 per cent of the cases and just a fourth of those ended in convictions. In case of scheduled tribes, trial was completed in only 12 per cent of the cases and only a fifth of those ended in conviction. So the number of courts exclusively for cases under the SC/ST Act is very less as compared to the requirement. Out of the 700-odd districts, only 194 have exclusive courts for the SC/ST Act. The other districts also need these kind of exclusive courts to give proper justice to the communities.

Poor rate of convictions point to an unfinished agenda identified with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The law commonly called the SC ST Act requires all states to provide for an ample number of special courts that can hear cases of atrocities against SC/STs. The rising tendency of atrocities and falling convictions are the concerns of the country right now. Thus almost 90% of the cases filed under SC/ST Act languish at the end of every year and when they do manage to complete trial, on an average five years later, and majority of the accused are acquitted. If we go to the increase of crimes against SC/STs between 2010 and 2016, we will see crime has increased by 10% against SC and 6% against ST. We see a rise of the pending cases against SC and ST. During 2016 pending cases were 91% against SC and 78% against STs. Conviction for crimes against SC/ST during 2016 was only 16% and 2010 it was 38%. My question is it was far better in 2010 where the conviction was 38% and, when this present government took over, the percentage came down to 16%. This means conviction is reduced to very large extent and pendency of the cases are increasing.

As much as 98.6% of all the crimes against Scheduled Castes that came for trial in 2016 did not end in conviction. In the cases of crimes against ST, 99.2 % cases did not see conviction, and this is the failure of the present government. Total 14 states have special courts mandated by Section 14 of the Act. Others have designated district and the sessions courts for this purpose; 10% of the cases of the crimes against SC/ST under police investigation are labelled as false.

So these are the problems that we are having in our country. If we see the crimes and atrocities against persons of SC, we will see high prevalence states like Uttar Pradesh 25.6%, Rajasthan 12.6 %; if we see metropolitan cities, high prevalence of the crimes and atrocities against SC, the cities are Jaipur in Rajasthan, Lucknow, Kanpur in UP. These all are the states ruled by BJP governments. Since 2014, crimes against STs have seen an overall decrease of 3.8% only with a significant drop of 8% in 2015. So it is our concern also. High convictions but huge backlog. The judiciary is the body in charge of enforcing the rights of SC/STs under the Act by conducting a fair trial and convicting in case of guilt. Conviction rate for cases involving SC/ST atrocities are slightly below the all India rate of 21% and for STs 20.8% and are significantly higher in cases involving SC 25%. Conviction rates are particularly low in states like Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. In case of Rajasthan, a lot of incidents and crimes against SC/STs have happened, and at the police investigations stage, a total number of 1,060 cases were disposed by the police due to mistake of fact of the victim. Out of these cases, 691 of these took place in the state of Rajasthan. This is a serious concern where most of the SC/ST people are being beaten up by the mob and in the name of mob-lynching, in the name of hate crimes, mostly the downtrodden people the SC/ST and the minorities are the victims. So, these things happened mostly in the states where the BJP government rules.

Many of the people Honourable members they were talking about Ambedkar and his contributions. I only want to make few points. Ambedkar is now a point of business. BJP is doing business with this name, INC is doing business with this name. We, the common people, we the people from the downtrodden classes, we should not see Ambedkar will be a point of business. Baba Saheb Ambedkar is a father-figure and if we want to respect him, we have to pay respect to the downtrodden community of this country. That is not there in this country specially in the BJP ruled areas.

I want to give some suggestions, number one, establishment of the courts exclusively for SC/ST communities in the whole country, the number of courts is very less as compared to the present requirement. Therefore establishing the maximum number of courts exclusively for the cases for the SC/STs should be established. Vacancies in the courts to be filled up immediately with priority. So that the increasing tendency of the cases could be minimum.

Then, justice, that is the ultimate objective for downtrodden people. They should not wait for a long time. They have to wait for five years, ten years, fifteen years and after that no judgement comes. Therefore speedy justice is required for the people.

Empowerment of the SC/ST community people, that is another issue. By giving them the proper education, legal facilities, you can improve their social status. And lastly, I want to highlight those points, the implement of the Tribal Sub Plan, SC Sub Plan, the implement of funds under these plans. It is required and the diversion of the funds is not required. Deputy Speaker Sir, with these words I from my party rise for supporting this amendment. Thank you.

 

Trinamool observes ‘Black Day’

Trinamool Congress observed ‘black day’ in districts and blocks across the state on Saturday to protest against the “detention and manhandling” of its leaders in Assam’s Silchar airport, where they had gone to assess the situation after the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The protest will continue on Sunday too. Carrying placards and sporting black masks and badges, TMC activists shouted slogans against the BJP governments at the Centre and Assam and the final draft of the NRC.

Trinamool Chairperson Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the members of the delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing a “super emergency” in the country.

Party’s Secretary-General Partha Chatterjee had said, “What happened to our party delegation is not only shameful but also undemocratic. Our slogan will be ‘we don’t need this monstrous government any more’.”

Warehouses for storing & preserving medicinal plants by State Govt

The Forest Department has decided to set up two warehouses – one in north and the other in south Bengal – for storing and preserving medicinal plants. This was announced recently by the State Forest Minister.

The State Government has been giving a lot of stress on the growing of medicinal plants as it has a lot of potential, and there is a big export market as well.

With the warehouses in place, the minister said, the collectors will be able to store their collections and thus give enough time for Government officials to check and make the proper payments.

Collection of plants from forests is not only a difficult job but is also risky and hence, the Government wants to ensure that people get what they really deserve.

Source: Millennium Post

Image Source

Bengal Govt to conduct awareness campaign on animal cruelty

The State Animal Welfare Board will conduct awareness programmes on cruelties against animals. The programmes will be conducted in collaboration with CSPCA Animal Hospital (located on BB Ganguly Street).

The main purpose of the programme is to make people from various walks of life and school students aware about cruelties against animals which often take place on the streets of Kolkata as well as in the districts.

An official of the Animal Resources Development Department said that the Government would urge the Centre to formulate a policy to set up a National Animal Rights Commission in order to systematically with cases of cruelty to animals. There will be a more stringent mechanism to prosecute those who inflict injuries on street dogs and other animals.

Source: Millennium Post

Image source

Bengal Govt to give ektaras to bauls participating in I-Day parade

For the first time, the State Government has decided to give ektaras to the bauls taking part in the Independence Day parade on Red Road.

The Government’s Lok Prasar Prakalpa, a dream project of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for uplifting folk artistes, has been highly successful in bringing the traditional music and culture of Bengal to the forefront. Under the project, around 2 lakh folk artistes are being benefitted. The ‘prakalpa’ or scheme has helped in saving many folk art forms from extinction.

Folk artistes who have been benefitted by the Lok Prasar Prakalpa also include a large number of bauls, more than 30 of whom will be participating in the Red Road parade this year. Ektara, a one-stringed instrument, is the traditional instrument of bauls.

According to a senior State Government official, the participating bauls will be provided not only with ektaras, but also attires, and both of similar designs. The dresses will be made keeping in mind the tradition and culture of bauls.

Besides performances by folk artistes, the Independence Day parade will see tableaus of different departments.

Source: Millennium Post

Idrish Ali speaks on The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Thank you Sir, I am deeply grateful to you for giving me scope to speak on this important Bill. আমি তার সঙ্গে কৃতজ্ঞতা জানাই আমাদের মাননীয়া মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়কে,যাকে আমরা দ্বিতীয় মাদার টেরেজা বলি, কারণ তার আশীর্বাদ নাহলে আমি আজকে সাংসদ হতে পারতাম না। (I also thank Mamata Banerjee, who we call second Mother Teresa, without her blessings I would not have become an MP).

Hon Chairman Sir, the Government on May 3, 2018 promulgated an Ordinance amending the ‘Commercial courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015’. This Bill seeks to amend the ‘Commercial courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015’ and also seeks to replace it with the ‘Commercial courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Hon Chairman Sir, there are so many cases pending in courts. This is really a cause of concern for the common man. Setting up of commercial courts would certainly give some relief to the people but we also have to appoint suitable judges for this propose and they should also be provided training in microeconomics.

The Hon Minister is here. My humble suggestion is that as on date, the judiciary is burdened with more than 3 crore pending cases in the Supreme Court, the High Courts and the subordinate courts. In the High Courts, 23 per cent of cases have been pending for over 10 years. Further over 29 per cent of all cases have been pending between two and five years.

Hon Chairman Sir, in the subordinate courts over eight percent cases have been pending for over 10 years. The maximum number of cases in subordinate courts, of which 47 per cent have been pending for less than two years, is around 1.2 crore.

Hon Chairman Sir, the pendency of cases for long years, has resulted in an increase in the number of under trial prisoners, accused prisoners at trial as of 2015. There were over 4 lakh prisoners in jail. Hon Chairman Sir, of these two thirds (2.8 lakhs) were under trails, and the remaining one third were convicts. This is the reason as to why most of the people do not want to go to the courts and want to get their issues solved outside the court.

Hon Chairman Sir, we all know that there is a huge backlog and a large number of vacancies in courts. Unless that is taken care of any number of creating additional machineries may not solve the problem of the accumulation of the cases.

Hon Chairman Sir, overall vacancies in all courts in the country have increased across all courts from 23 per cent in 2006 to 35 per cent in 2018 (up to April). In the Supreme Court, it has increased from 8 per cent to 23 per cent, in the High Courts from 16 per cent to 38 per cent and the subordinate courts from 19 per cent to 26 per cent. As of April 2018, the High Courts have a vacancy of 38 per cent (406) against a total strength of 1079. In the subordinate courts vacancies have increased from 19 per cent to 26 per cent between 2006 and 2017. In West Bengal, total vacancies are 40 and in Andhra Pradesh it is 66.

Hon’ble Minister is here. One of the most critical changes introduced in this Bill is with respect to the appointment of judges of commercial courts. Earlier the state governments would appoint those judges only with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of High Court. Whereas after the amendment, the State Government has the power to appoint judges even without the concurrence of the Chief Justice of the High Court. Unless all the vacancies of the judges are filled up in the regular courts, the problem of disposal of cases will never be solved.

According to ‘The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Act, 2015’, herein referred to as ‘Principal Act’ under the provision of Section 19 and 20 of the Bill passed an obligation on the state government to provide infrastructural facilities. Considering the financial condition of the states, Centre should provide substantial funds for the establishment of these facilities.

In order to fulfil the objective of quick disposal of the pending cases, vacancies in the judiciary at all levels should be filled up and for that reason or purpose to the fulfilment of the objects and reasons, the Central Government should come up with sufficient financial support to the State Government.

Hon’ble Minister, it is a fact that you have created a commercial court but for that purpose, you have not created new court judges to deal with the commercial matter. In effect, which judges are taking up criminal matters? A judge who is taking criminal matters is also becoming a judge for commercial matters.

I urge upon the government to confirm that at all levels make sure that a poor person gets help at the doorsteps. Necessary steps should be initiated without further loss of time.

Thank you, Chairman Sir.

ধন্যবাদ জানাই বিশ্ব বাংলার রূপকার ও দেশের সবচেয়ে জনপ্রিয় নেত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়কে।