Month: January 2019

Question 237

Will the Minister of SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether Government has released the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks for field staff;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the procedures are legally enforceable and if so, the details thereof;

(d) if not, the reasons therefor; and

(e) the details of technological interventions brought or introduced by Government for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks?

First Supplementary Question

Whether it is a fact that the rehabilitation schemes for sewers and septic tank cleaners do not include female workers. And also, whether the definition of ‘manual scavengers’ given by the Government excludes the large number of other sanitation workers such as those who are cleaning drains?

Second Supplementary Question

Sir, whether the Government has released funds for the self-employment schemes for rehabilitation of manual scavengers only up till September, 2017? Why it is not released after that?

And Sir, the survey that has been carried out was done in only 121 districts out of the 600 districts. What about the rest of the districts?

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Hon’ble Chairman Sir, the Hon Minister replied that out of 11,74,23551 enrolled students from Classes I to VIII, 9,2,68,822 (77 per cent) have linked their Aadhar to the mid-day meal project in our country, except the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya.

What is the fate of the the rest of the 2,71,53,729 students who are not till date linked with Aadhar. They will be abused. How they will be fed?

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Sir, the Hon External Affairs Minister has said just now that the discussion on the Rafale Deal was not held because the Supreme Court judgment was delivered and that the External Affairs Minister of France was very happy (with Supreme Court judgment on the Rafale Deal). I want to ask the Minister, whether he was happy because the Supreme Court refused to order an investigation into the awarding of contract to a private Indian company.

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Will the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs be pleased to state:

There are news reports that say DDA flats for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category were allotted to people who had applied for flats under the Lower Income Group (LIG) category. The allotted flats are smaller in size.

a) Whether the Government is aware of such reports?

b) If so, the action taken by the Government in this regard and the total number of unused flats lying with the DDA at present?

c) What does the government intend to with the unused flats?

Thank you, Sir.

 

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(a) whether there is any specific physical education syllabus recommended by the Ministry to ensure that training in athletics and sports begins at the school level itself; and

(b) the minimum qualification recommended for physical education teachers?

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I address the demand for making firms liable to pay compensation for defective drugs and devices.

The moment any product is found to be defective and substandard, Sir, it must be withdrawn from the market promptly and any damages caused has to be compensated to the consumer.

Sir making these changes in the law will lead to more transparency and better checks in patient safety. I would therefore urge the Government to take proactive steps in this regard.

Thank you.

 

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Question 228

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) the number of private schools that are required to reserve seats for students of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and the number of such seats available, yearwise and State-wise since 2015;

(b) the number and proportion of such seats in private schools which have been filled during that period, year-wise and State-wise;

(c) the steps taken to increase awareness about the availability of vacant seats;

(d) whether complaints have been received against any private school for non-acceptance of EWS students; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the action taken in this regard?

First Supplementary Question

When the Right to Education was brought, the BPL families were supposed to become first-generation learners. That was one of the objectives.

My first question is, whether the National Informatics Centre would develop a software which would make it easier for BPL families to enrol under the Right to Education Act? What is the update on this software, if any?

Second Supplementary Question

My second supplementary is related to the answer which has been laid.

Education is a subject on the Concurrent List, and most of the reasons where the minister or the ministry could not supply all the answers is because the State Government has not supplied or has to supply (them). Education was put on the Concurrent List only in 1976.

The broader issue – and we don’t want to get into the politics or the controversy of that – is, is the Government, to respect the federal structure, open to the idea of putting education back on to the State List?

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Thank you Sir. This is the 100th year of the Indian people’s movement against the Rowlatt Acts, which were introduced by the British Government to take away the Civil liberties of our countrymen. And after 100 years we have seen that this Government is following the footsteps of the British Government as the Ministry of Home Affairs has introduced recently a Circular which authorises 10 Central agencies to intercept and monitor any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer on grounds of purported internal security.

Now Sir, the Government’s stand is that this is nothing new, whatever has been done is under the provisions of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made in 2009.

But Sir, at that point of time there was no Supreme Court judgement that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right. It has been recently pronounced by the Supreme Court last year and Supreme Court in its judgement on the Right to Privacy and Aadhaar has established the twin tests of necessity and proportionality. The Ministry of Home Affairs circular fails on both these counts.

Sir, the trend of collecting data under the pretext of some or the other reason is becoming very apparent. The decision calling for a blanket surveillance is unconstitutional and poses a serious threat to person’s right to privacy and gradually if this continues, this country, which is a welfare state will be turned into a police state or surveillance state.

That is why I demand the circular must be withdrawn (as it is against the citizens). In specific cases, with some checks and balances; Government should resort to it.

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

The Government of India had announced on September 17, 2018 a plan for merger of the public sector banks. The main issue here is that this matter should have been brought to Parliament as the Parliament is in session.

This is such a serious issue because it involves the employment of 90,000 personnel, they will be closing down 1,800-1,900 bank branches and this will result in stoppage of tariff flow to the farmers, an issue which is very dear to our hearts now; farmers, women, SHGs, small scale industries, the whole.

The problem is that this particular issue needs more attention because all these banks have NPAs. Other banks also have NPAs. How will a merger reduce the NPAs? The other issue is that the banks operate on different IT platforms. Merging of these platforms is going to be a problem.

So, the main issue here is that we need to look at this case more seriously and not to rush into anything. You have noticed in many other cases that the Central Government has a tendency to suddenly decide upon a certain issue or notice and pass a Cabinet resolution.

I would urge the Government, through you, that the entire matter should be looked at anew and not to force the issue at this stage. Thank you.