Arpita Ghosh asks a Supplementary Question on attacks on Indians in USA

Arpita Ghosh asks a Supplementary Question on attacks on Indians in USA

Posted on March 20, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Thank You Madam. The Minister has spoken in great detail. However, we have seen that after the new President took office in USA, the Indians are under attacked regularly. We have given statements on the issue.

Our Prime Minister has visited US several times in the last 3 years. He also welcomed the new President after he took office. However, our friends who are based there are concerned. What is the government doing about this?

They keep saying ‘we are taking up the things with US government’ but I want to know what specific steps are being taken by the Govt of India to ensure the safety of Indians in the USA.

Saugata Roy asks a Supplementary Question on closed oil wells

Posted on March 20, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Mantri Ji ne jo aankrein diye hain us mein Assam or Gujarat mein sab se zyada wells sabhi non flowing hain. Dono rajyo mein hazar ke barabar wells nahin function kar raha hain. Assam ke wells bahut purana hain. Digboi mein British zamane mein well hua tha. Lekin Gujarat ka well utna purana nehi hain. Ankelshwar mein oil unko mila tha.

Mantri Ji ne bola hain ke kis kaaran ke liye yeh kam nahin kar raha hain lekin yeh toh ek natural resource ka wastage ho raha hain. Mantri Ji ne kya is per janch kiye hain ki kyun Assam aur Gujarat mein itne wells kaam nahin kar rahe hain? Koi geo-physical study hua hain? Aur yeh wells revive karne ke liye koi foreign tecnology ka istemal karenge kya Mantri Ji?

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar speaks on Demand for Grants for the Ministry of Home Affairs

Posted on March 17, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

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I stand here on behalf of All India Trinamool Congress in support for the Demand for Grants for the Home Ministry. But it saddens me that Hon’ble Finance Minister is not here to consider that. Is this not an important subject? In the Budget speech, on page 36, he has given a list of important ministries and Home Ministry is not listed among those. It is saddening that the government does not consider that Home Ministry is important.

I think that internal security is one of the most important issues by which we live safely in this country. The Home Ministry takes care of the internal security and we have the brave jawans who are protecting us. Even before starting I want to pay respect to all jawans who have lost their lives to protect us over the last few years.

I would also like to congratulate this government for selecting a lady as the director general of SSB. I think this is a first time in history a lady is commanding the SSB. I congratulate the Minister. I also would like to request him that there was a decision and he promised to have about 33% reservation for women in the forces. But as of today we have about 6% and these girls are working very hard to protecting us. They are deployed in the international borders; they are maintaining law and order.

This House has very rightly passed the maternity Benefit Bill. I would request the Hon’ble Minister to consider giving the women in the forces a posting close to their homes for two years after they give birth to a child so that they can take of the little future citizens.

I would also like to congratulate this government and Hon. Minister for increase in the scholarship of the children of the jawans and raising the amount of money and the number of children to be included – both boys and girls.

After all the congratulations, let us come to the sour points. Our country has a very long international border. The land border is more than 15,106.7 km and the coastline is 7,516.6 kilometers. We share the borders with eight different countries out of which some are friendly countries; we also have non-friendly neighbouring countries. But the fencing is not complete.

The forces that guard us, guard our motherland, guard our very favourite Bharat Mata, are the Assam Rifles, BSF, CISF, CRPF, SSB, ITBP whose authorised strength has been 9,67,816 but as of today vacancies of 73,464 jawans are lying vacant. I would request, when you are filling them up, honourable Sir, please give cognizance to the girls also who are doing very well. The ladies are doing very well, we’ve been to the borders and we’ve seen how they work hard.

Today we have the foreign terrorist groups, we have the threat of ISIS, we have cyber crime but the budget allocation – right from grant number 46 to 47,48,49 up to 53 – has been reduced. The percentage increase over 2016-17, as far as the grant number 46 is concerned, is minus 48.6 percent. For grant number 48 – for police budget – it is minus 3.65% and overall it is minus 5.93%. Instead of increasing the budget, the budget has gone down.

If we look at the expenditure, then for grant number 46, we have spent least amount in the year 2016-17. Over the last three fiscals, 80 percent funds have only been spent. I wonder how? On one hand when we inquired why the jawans don’t have the mine-protective vehicles in the left wing extremism areas, we were told there is no money to buy those vehicles. But here we see that the money is not being spent. So there surely seems to be a gap between expenditure and the requirement and the allotment. This is a matter of serious concern.

As far as police grant is concerned, if we consider the Budget Estimate, the Revised Estimate and Expenditure, even that is the lowest in the last three fiscals and the whole amount has not been spent. This year for machine and equipment only 1.7% of the whole has been given and for arms and ammunition 1.46% has been given. We think that this has to be increased because when our poor jawans are facing the terrorists they have to be equipped to the T. They have to be more equipped than the terrorists to take them on and protect our motherland. I don’t understand why the allotment has been slashed as far as the cybercrime registry, the crime and criminal tracking system and the left wing terrorism heads.

I would also like to draw the attention of the Hon. Minister here that the condition of women in this country, the safety and security of the women in the country is still at stake. It was only three days ago, on the day of Holi, a young mother was gangraped and to save her life she had to jump from the first floor of a building here in the city of Delhi. So let us imagine the plight of women all over the country, specially in rural areas. She lay on the streets without her clothes for several minutes before an auto-rickshaw wala come and took her to the police station.

We are sometimes talking about a mobile app for women which will come on the smartphones. My question to you, Sir, through Honorable Chair, is how many of our rural women, how many of the agricultural worker women, how many of labourer women have smartphones? Only 27% of this country uses smart phones. So if the app is on a smartphone, no girl while being tortured can dial that app to get the police.

You have to think of some better way by which we can protect our women. The Nirbhaya Fund was not spent and when the Nirbhaya incident had taken place it had been decided that one or two constables will remain in all the buses in the evening. I don’t know whether those constables are still there. The problem remains because we are running short of staff. Like I said, about 73,000 jawans and constables are required for proper functioning but they have not been appointed.

I would also like to draw the attention to the August House, through you Sir, that between July, 2016 and January, 2017, the number of law and order incidents that shook up Jammu & Kashmir was 2392; number of civilians killed was 73 and the number of forces killed was 2.

In the North Eastern region we experienced 484 incidents in which 87 extremists were killed, 17 forces were killed and 48 civilians were killed. It looks like a war has been waged around our borders.

Among the forces, we have an elite force known as the National Security Guard. There are four regional hubs – Kolkata, Chennai Mumbai and Hyderabad. They are doing good. I know about the Kolkata setup because it is located close to the airport. I have been writing and it has been all futile. The hub is just a five minutes drive from the airport but the area is congested. So, I have given one year’s MPLAD fund so that they can build a subway which people can use so that the road is kept empty for the NSG jawans and the 160 battalions of BSF, to reach the airport when the requirement comes.

Through you I would like to request the Hon. Minister if a flyover can be built for them so that they can reach the main road which is about 3 km away from their hub; from there the airport is around 2 km away. God forbid if anything happens in the eastern region of the country they will be able to move very fast. BSF and NSG hubs are located just opposite one another on Badu Road.

I would also like to draw the attention of this August House, through you Sir, that India is, a very large country with a very long international border with a long coastline. It is because of the unguarded coast that we had the misfortune to see the day our enemies took a boat and came up to Maharashtra and shot people dead.

Now, I understand that in the Runn of Kucch in Gujarat there is always water making it difficult to have the fence. I understand that in Sunderbans, we have the tidal waves making it difficult to maintain the fence. But, in spite of the difficulties, we will have to think of something innovative.

For the last seven eight years that I have been talking about this and I have been hearing that we are getting technical support from international friends to have laser, fences, thermal detectors and night vision gadgets. But, till date, that is not there and every night hundreds of infiltrators coming through these open porous borders.

The BSF has to be more careful but they are also standing for hours together, Sir, guarding the borders. So, if we can have more number of jawans, then the shift can be of lesser hours and they can be more alert.

The fencing is not complete anywhere, Sir. As far as Bengal is concerned, see we have about 2,828 km of fencing out of sanctioned 3,326. Similarly, we have this kind of border gaps in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab area.

Sir, in the coastal areas we have these floating BOPs. But I have been time and again requesting that these border outposts which are floating – the speedboats have been given, no doubt, but we don’t have the technology. There are no drivers who can drive the speedboats. So, they are lying. We need technical support for the maintenance of those boats; we need technical support for their total functioning, which is not happening. This should be considered and some funds should be given for this.

The other thing is that the State police is demanding watchtowers. Up to a certain distance, it is the duty of the BSF, and after that it is the responsibility of the State police. Unless we have watchtowers we would not be able to watch the coastal areas when people are coming in at night, and also when animals are being crossed over during the day or night. So money should be sanctioned for building watchtowers, and roads too.

There is so much to say because of the concerns of internal securities, Sir. The defence personnel who are located at high altitudes, beyond 15,000 feet, are not getting enough supplies, Sir. They are our children, they are looking after us. We understand it is very difficult to grow vegetables there, but we are trying, of course; but they are dying either of snowstorms or avalanches. So we have to take care of them in a better way so that they can look after us better.

I would like to draw your august attention to the fact that funds under many heads were left unspent – for example, the funds for the Registrar General of India are fully unspent, then under the heads of town mapping and modernisation of data dissemination, and the filling up of vacant posts. We also need to give special attention to cyber crime and NATGRID. We would be grateful if you could consider these.

Thank you, Sir.

Pratima Mandal speaks on Demands for Grants for Ministry of Defence

Posted on March 17, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

National Security is the most important thing for our country to maintain peace and stability both within and outside the country. India’s strategic location is crucial both for the South Asian region and for the whole world. Of late, terrorism, insurgency and sectarian conflicts are on rise both at national and international arena. Internal security is under threat from cross border terrorism, militancy in the North-East, Left-Wing extremism and terrorism in the hinterland.

Madam, while announcing the allocation for defence, the Finance Minister avoided any mention of the previous year’s allocation. Perhaps it was for a reason. At Rs 2,74,114 crore – excluding the outlay of Rs 85,740 crore for defence pension – it was only 6% more than the comparable Budget Estimate of Rs 2,58,589 crore for 2016-17. The allocation is grossly inadequate to meet the security needs of the country.

The noticeable feature is the gradual decline in the defence budget share in both Central Government expenditure and the GDP with a share of 1.56% of the estimated GDP for 2017-18. This budget is the lowest since 1956-57. Madam, the revenue stores and capital modernisation together play a vital role in the operational preparedness of the Armed Forces. The combination shared of these two elements has declined from 55 per cent in 2007-08 to 40 per cent in 2016-17. The present ratio needs to change for the better for which the allocations under revenue stores and capital modernisation need to be augmented substantially.

Among the Defence Services, the Indian Army, with a budget of Rs 1,49,369 crore, accounts for the biggest share in the Defence budget, followed by the Air Force, the Navy, the DRDO and the ordnance factories. But the bulk of the Army’s budget, nearly 85 per cent goes into meeting pay and allowances. Only 17 per cent of the Army’s total allocation has been earmarked for capital expenditure, whereas for the Air Force, it is 58 per cent and for the Navy, it is 51 per cent.

Madam, under the head of modernisation, the Army’s fund has been decreased by 6.4 per cent and the Navy’s by 12.1 per cent; only the Air Force’s fund has been increased, by 12.1 per cent. The increase in the Air Force’s budget is in the view of its signing several mega-contracts like Rafale fighters and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. Madam, only 12 per cent of the total modernisation budget of Rs 70,000 crore is available for the signing of new contracts. There is a whooping under-utilisation of funds of Rs 7,393 crore and the Army accounts for 50 per cent of the total unspent funds. Under-utilisation of funds has become a recurring feature of the Indian Defence budget because of the Finance Ministry’s machinations. Poor allocation, coupled with under-utilisation, is severely affecting modernisation and procurement.

Unlike in the previous Budget, this Union Budget has not provided any specific incentive to push the Make in India initiative in the defence sector. There is a reduction on income tax to 25 percent from 30 percent for the micro, small and medium enterprises with an annual turnover upto Rs 50 crores. This may benefit six thousand MSME’s which supply components to DRDO, defence public sector undertakings, ordnance factories and large private companies. Perhaps infrastructure status, which has been given for affordable housing should have been giving for availing tax benefit which is a long pending issue.

There is only a mere five percent increase into official defence budget and is grossly inadequate, taking the inflation and external and internal trade into consideration. Madam, we are a country that has one of the largest armed forces. They selflessly do the work that we cannot imagine to do for a day. It is unfortunate that they are not receiving the support they deserve. The fact that our country allocates crores every year on defence but hardly provides adequate funds to support these courageous souls is of great concern to us.

Winston Churchill had said: “ We sleep soundly in our bed because rough stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”. So, even one soldier treated improperly is unacceptable to us. I appeal to consider increasing the defence budget allocation specially to support not only our serving soldiers but war veterans struggling to survive physical, psychological and financial trauma.
Thank you, Madam, for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Sugata Bose speaks in Lok Sabha on Demands for Grants for Defence Ministry

Posted on March 16, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Madam Speaker, three years before we won our freedom, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave a speech to the faculty and students of the University of Tokyo on the fundamental problems of India. In the course of his wide-ranging address, he identified three priorities for free India – one, the organisation of our national defence, two, the removal of poverty and three, the provision of education for the Indian masses. Seventy years after independence, these areas continue to demand our urgent attention.

The challenge for any Finance Minister is to strike just the right balance between the imperative for defence and the need for development in allocating the resources of the State. In recent years we have come to appreciate that national security is a far broader concept than a purely military-oriented definition might suggest. Public investment in a health and well-educated populace can be seen as a contribution to our nation’s security. The defence budget, therefore, is simply the most direct aspect of fiscal planning for a safe national environment. Viewed in this light, the Finance Minister has provided a reasonable sum of Rs 2,74,114 crore for defence expenditure excluding pensions.

We can only speculate whether Shri Arun Jaitley would have been more generous to himself than he was to Shri Manohar Parrikar. But be that as it may, the Defence Budget in our country is the fourth largest in the world after the United States, China and the United Kingdom. There have been steady, moderate increases in spending on defence during the last three years. The current ratio of defence expenditure to GDP of 2.14 per cent is higher than the cap of 1.76 per cent that had been proposed by the 13th Finance Commission.

Even though the total allocation for defence may seem adequate, a disaggregation of the amount by revenue and capital expenditure shows there is cause for grave concern. The ratio of revenue to capital expenditure has gone up to as much as 68.4 per cent in the Budget Estimate for 2017-18 by comparison with the already high 64.6 per cent in 2015-16 and 65.3 per cent in 2016-17.

With personnel costs, Madam Speaker, swallowing up more than two thirds of the Defence Expenditure, precious little is left for the modernisation of our armed forces with state-of-the-art technology and equipment. In fact, the overall modernisation budget or, what is called the Capital Procurement Budget, has gone down this year. The Army has seen a decline of approximately 6.4% and the Navy of as much as 12.1% despite what my friend from the Treasury Benches said just now.

The increase in the Air Force’s Budget by about 12.1% is accounted for by a handful of gigantic contracts to acquire Raphael Fighters and Apache Attack and Chinuk Heavy Lift helicopters. Madam Speaker, I am especially dismayed by the cut in the Navy’s modernisation budget. The Indian Ocean inter-regional arena is of vital strategic importance to our country. The protection of the sea-lanes, traversing the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is essential if we are to secure our economic future as a part of an Asian resurgence in the 21st century. I am aware that the acquisition of six more conventional submarines was authorised last year under Project 75 I, these are being built in India with foreign collaboration. The first of the Scorpene class submarines – Kalaveri – has gone through its sea-trial.

But we need to do much more. Our strategic vision on power dynamics in Indian ocean must guide our strategic investments in our Navy. The strong case for our increasing capital expenditure on the latest military equipment is unfortunately undermined by the sorry records of under utilisation by the Ministry of Defence of allotted funds. It is most unfortunate that the Ministry of Defence returned more than Rs 13000 crore under the capital head in 2015-2016 and about Rs 7000 crore in 2016-2017. The Finance Minister is also the Defence Minister. I hope he will take the necessary steps to make the Defence Ministry more efficient in utilising capital funds.

The question of capital expenditure leads me to consider the matter of defence production. Despite the fan fare surrounding PM Modi’s ‘Make In India’ it unfortunately remains just that an empty slogan with no strategy for implementation. In the same speech given by Subhas Chandra Bose which I quoted at the outset, he went on to say the moment India is free, the most important problem will be organising our national defence in order to safeguard our freedom in the future. For that we shall have to build up modern war industries so that we can produce the arms that we shall need for self defence. This will mean a very big programme for industrialisation.

Seven decades after independence our defence requirements are heavily reliant on imports. The burden of a spiraling import bill has been made more onerous in the last three years because of the declining value of the rupee in relation to the dollar. I would like to ask the Finance Minister why in his Budget he has not given any special incentive towards defence production within India in support of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ programme. What are his reasons for not giving infrastructure status to the more crucial sectors of our defence industry. Is there any plan at all to provide more jobs for our youth in defence related manufacturing.

In December 2015, our Prime Minister had given a very significant speech to our Army, Navy and Air Commanders in which he spoke of the need for a new approach for our Armed Forces, one that would give emphasis to new technology instead of blindly increasing the size of the forces. Has the government any intention of moving in that direction and thereby improving the ratio of capital to revenue expenditure. China, Madam Speaker, reduced it’s military manpower from 4.9 million in the mid 1990’s to 2.3 million two decades later. I know that a drastic reduction is not possible in our country, so long as this government presides over and is complacently satisfied with jobless growth and employment oriented economic strategy. Including jobs in defence production is a necessary condition for military modernisation.

Madam Speaker, any discussion of our military cannot be limited to dry economic statistics. The people of our country feel an emotional bond with our armed forces. We mourn as nation when the bodies of our martyred jawans are brought back to their home villages in different parts of the country. Our hearts are filled with pride when we see our soldiers marched into the tune kadam kadam badhaye ja.

A political leadership must do their best not to impose impossible internal security tasks on our military so that our soldiers can focus on defending our borders. My friend from the BJP almost handed over some territory to our neighboring country. I thought we had only crossed the Line of Control for the surgical strike. We do not consider that to be Pakistan territory.

When we send our soldiers to face the icy winds on the Siachen Glacier it is incumbent on us to give them the best protective armour to withstand the elements of nature. We cannot be miserly when it comes to bullet proof jackets or night vision equipment for our soldiers working in the most difficult terrain in the world.

I feel very sad to know that this government had many difficulties in 2014 in finding a capable and dedicated full time Defence Minister. I urge the Prime Minister to give the country a Raksha Mantri whose predilection for Goan delicacies is less important than proving nutritious food to our jawans. I urge the Prime Minister to give our country a Raksha Mantri who deems the proud responsibility of organising our national defence to be more important than power at any cost in a small State of our great Indian Union.

Madam Speaker, we on this side of the House too have a dream for a new India by 2022. I dream that India will be the most vibrant economy in the world with our citizens enjoying universal access to education and healthcare. I dream that India will be home to 20 of the world’s top 100 universities attracting the finest faculty and students from all over the world and over arching Indian identity will co-exist with multiple identities of our diverse population. That identity will be most powerfully articulated through the medium of our music to whose rhythm the entire country will dance. We will celebrate and respect our differences to rise above them.

To realize that dream of a prosperous and harmonious India we need peace. To ensure peace we require intelligent and resolute defence preparedness setting aside all temptations to be jingoistic. There are many weapons we have to acquire but we cannot use most of them. To build a new India by the 75th anniversary of our independence we will have to integrate our defence policy with a grand strategic vision based on a broad and imaginative definition of what constitutes genuine national security. That is the challenge before us, Madam Speaker, and so let us together rise to that challenge.

From farmer suicides to medical negligence, Trinamool MPs raise matters of public importance in Parliament

Posted on March 16, 2017 | by aitc | Leave a Comment

Today, Trinamool Congress MPs raised a variety of issues of public importance in Parliament ranging from medical negligence in private hospitals to the issue of farmer suicides, from manual scavenging to the Union Budget.

In the Rajya Sabha, Md Nadimul Haque raised the issue of medical negligence in private hospitals. He pointed out to the fact that the West Bengal Government has passed an Act which seeks to bring more transparency in healthcare, and urged the Central Government and other States to pass a similar law.

In the same House, Vivek Gupta raised the issue of alleged reports of the shifting of the headquarters of Hindustan Paper Corporation from Kolkata to Guwahati. Later, Vivek Gupta raised another important issue – that of compensation for manual scavengers.

In the Lok Sabha, Ratna De Nag spoke on the Demands for Grants for the Agriculture Ministry, raising the issue of the increase in the number of suicides by farmers in the last three years, and urging the Ministry for adequate financial assistance for farmers under various heads.

Cooch Behar MP Partha Pratim Roy asked a Supplementary Question on the electrification of villages during Question Hour.

Sugata Bose, in his erudition, took the government to task for not allocating enough funds for defence modernisation. He also rued the lack of initiatives on part of the government for defence manufacturing. He called for a strategic vision rather than jingoism in defence sector.

Later in the Rajya Sabha, during a discussion of the Union Budget, Vivek Gupta spoke on some important issues related to the Finance Ministry, like bringing the illegal black money stashed abroad back to the country and depriving States of revenue collected from various cess and surcharge.

Partha Pratim Roy asks a Supplementary Question on electrification of villages

Posted on March 16, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Many of the villages all over India, including few villages of West Bengal, are unelectrified till now. Madam, in my parliamentary constituency Cooch Behar 54 Mouzas which are disconnected from the mainland – due to the rivers Kaljani and Dhoula – are unelectrified. Fifty five Bangladeshi enclaves which were recently exchanged between Government of India and Government of Bangladesh are also unelectrified. My earnest request to the Minister is to electrify these areas immediately. What is government’s initiative taken in this regard?

Tapas Mandal speaks on Demands for Grants for the Agriculture Ministry

Posted on March 15, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

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Madam Speaker thank you for allowing me to raise the points on Demands for Grants 2017-18 for the Ministry of Agriculture.

Agriculture continues to be backbone of the economy. It employs 56% of the workforce.

The total share of agriculture and allied sectors in terms of GDP is 13.9%.

Over 58% of the rural households depend on the agriculture as their principal means of livelihood.

India’s GDP is expected to grow at 7.1% in the financial year of the 2016-17 while agriculture GDP is expected to grow at 4.1%.

India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spice products.

India’s fruit production has grown faster than vegetables making in the second largest fruit producer in the world.

The agro-industry in India is divided into several sub segments such as canned, dairy and frozen fruits to fisheries, meat, poultry and grains.

But there are some other points:

70% of the farmers never heard about the direct cash transfer.
Only 27% have heard about land acquisition law.
83% of the farmers are clueless about the foreign direct investment.
70% of the farmers never contacted any Kisan Call Centres.

Demonetisation affected the farmers adversely. What steps taken by the government given importance to the agriculture sector? What are the benefits and what is the road map of the agriculture sector? The economy contribution of agriculture to India’s GDP is steadily declining with the country’s broad based economic growth. Still agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the human and socio-economic fabric of India. Slow agricultural growth is a concern for policy makers as some two third of India’s population depend on rural employment for a living.

Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India’s yields for many agricultural commodities are low. Poorly maintained irrigation systems and almost universal lack of good extensional services are among the factors responsible. Farmers’ access to markets is hampered by poor roads, rudimentary marketing infrastructure and excessive regulation.

It will be essential for India to build up productive, competitive and diversified agricultural sector and facilitate rural non-farming entrepreneurship and employment. Encouraging policies that promote competitions in agricultural marketing will ensure farmers receive better prices. Although India has attained self sufficiency in food staples the productivity of its farm is below that of Brazil, United States, France and many other even developing countries.

Indian wheat farms, for example, produce about 1/3 of the width per hectare per year compared to farms in France. Rice productivity in India was less than that of China. Other staple crops’ productivity in India is similarly low. Indian Total Factor Productivity growth remains below 2% p.a.; in contrast, China’s Total Factor Productivity growth is above 6% p.a, even though China also has small holding farmers. Several studies suggest that India could eradicate its hunger and malnutrition to become a major source of food for the world by achieving productivity comparable to other countries.

Regarding farmers suicide, in 2012 the National Crimes Record Bureau of India reported 13,754 farmers committed suicide. Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all suicides in India. Activists and scholars have offered a number of conflicting reasons for farmer suicides such as monsoon failure, high debt burdens, genetically modified crops, government policies, public mental health, personal issues and family problems. But we are going through a heavy agrarian crisis of Indian agriculture.

Indian agriculture is undergoing a structural change leading to a crisis situation. The rate of growth of agriculture output is gradually declining in the recent years. The contribution of agriculture to GDP comes down to less than half within the third years span. The deceleration of agriculture started from the early 1990s and it became sharp from the late 1990s.

The trend in the areas input use and capital stock and technology also reflect the agricultural downfall. All these trends show that the agricultural sector in India is facing a crisis today. It is alarming that the average monthly income of farmer houses is quite less considering minimum living standards. The suicide in farming and the agricultural sector in India is a matter of concern.

About 40 % of the farming community is on the verge of leaving agriculture as their profession due to huge loss in farming practices. The young generation is not interested in farming any more; it is said that the root cause of the crisis is that agriculture is no more a profitable economic activity when compared to the other enterprises. It means the economic activities derived from these activities not sufficient enough to meet the expenditures of the cultivators and therefore unless agriculture is made a profitable enterprise the present crisis cannot be solved.

The related factors responsible for the crisis include dependence on rainfall and climate, liberal import of agricultural products, reduction in agricultural subsidies, lack of ease credit to agricultural dependence on money lenders, decline of government investment in agricultural sectors and conversion of agricultural land into alternative uses.

The government invokes the name of Ambedkar all the time but does nothing for the people of Ambedkar; please allocate proportionate part to agriculture following SC/ST sub plan not through SC/ST welfare schemes.

The government talks of giving emphasis on looking towards Eastern India but what has the government given Eastern India, specially West Bengal, which is the gateway of Eastern India?

We have a legitimate demand for setting up of a Central Agricultural University in West Bengal. West Bengal is playing a leading role in the country in agriculture and horticulture sector. In spite of that, West Bengal is deprived from getting Central Agricultural University. Central Horticulture University is also a demand from the Government. In Horticulture, West Bengal Government is much ahead of other states. As compared to other major states, West Bengal has very few ICR Research Institutes. We need more institutes, sub-centres, like, CRIDA, IIHR, IIVR, RRI etc. in the state of West Bengal. I hope that the Minister will consider these aspects in his next Budget.

This government talks of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikash, but is depriving West Bengal. We need more funds to be allocated for the development of agriculture in the state of West Bengal.

There is a saying in Bengali: “Ghoray Choriya Moddo Hantiya Cholilo” meaning a very dangerous man is riding on the horse gently. The actions of this government, which has a huge mandate, reminds us of that saying.

In the end, I would like to add that West Bengal is an example for the rest of the country to follow regarding implementing crop insurance scheme. Thank You.

Aparupa Poddar speaks in Lok Sabha on Demands for Grants for Ministry of Railways

Posted on March 15, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Thank you Hon’ble Speaker Sir for allowing me to speak on Railway Budget. I thank my party also. For the first time after independence, India has dispensed with the separate Railway Budget. It has not gone down well with the railway fraternity. Communities, organisations and the activists said that Budget announced nothing that could shake off the lack of mood among the lakhs of passengers who use Indian Railway services daily. Rail is the lifeline of the common citizen.

With a heavy heart, I am very pained to say that I often travel in trains and railway station and tracks are very dirty with sticky smells. The cleanliness of the trains is very bad. The toilets are very dirty. Even the blankets which are given in the first class AC compartments are in not proper conditions.

In the Railway Budget it has been mentioned that stations will be provided with lifts and escalators; it is good. The reality is different. In many stations they do not work. It is mentioned that in next three years stations will be modified and upgraded. Arambagh and Tarakeshwar railway stations need to be upgraded.

Our Hon’ble Chief Minister and former Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee thought to promote tourism and set up a corridor among the temples of Bishnupur, Tarakeswar, Kamarpukur – which is the birthplace of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa Dev – and Arambagh to Bowaichandi (31 km as mentioned in her Railway Budget in 2010-2011) to change the social-economic scenario for the people of Arambagh. I urge the government to expedite the project and allot sufficient funds.

Sir, I request the Hon’ble Rail Minister to start the work of ROB of Kamarkundu and expedite the project and the demand of the subway of Chandanpur railway station which is the need of the hour for the farmers and people residing there.

Thank you.

Kalyan Banerjee asks a Supplementary Question on skill development of women

Posted on March 15, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Madam, through you, I want to say that this job (skill development) is very laudable one and you are also putting in a lot of effort. I must appreciate that. Very recently, two weeks back, in my constituency at Dankuni, you have launched one project and I was invited there. I was very happy to see that.

While delivering his speech, the representative of the National Skill Development Corporation who was there made a categorical statement to the effect that those who will get the training and get the certificate, everyone will be given employment.

My question, through you, is whether this statement is correct? All those who get certificates from skill centres, will they be given employment? If that is so, how many persons have got these certificates and how many persons got employment?