People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

THE report of the Nanavati Commission, which probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Action Taken Report (ATR) of the government was tabled in parliament on August 8. This one-man commission, headed by the former Supreme Court judge, G T Nanavati was appointed by the previous NDA government on May 8, 2000 to probe into the incidents of riots that took place in New Delhi and other parts of the country on and after October 31, 1984 in the wake of the assassination of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. When tabled, the report sparked off furore in both the Houses, as members were completely frustrated over both the commission’s findings and the ATR of the government. In view of the seriousness of the reports of the commission and ATR, Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee allowed Shiromani Akali Dal member and former NDA minister, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa to move an adjournment motion on the failure of the government to take action against persons indicted by the Nanavati Commission on August 10, 2005. On the same day, proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were disrupted on this issue resulting in adjournment of the House for the day without transacting any listed business. On August 11, BJP member, Rajnath Singh moved a motion under Rule 170 in Rajya Sabha. Both the Houses discussed and debated on this issue. From the CPI(M) Md Salim spoke in Lok Sabha while in Rajya Sabha it was Nilotpal Basu (excerpts from both the speeches are being published elsewhere in this issue). Finally, the opposition-sponsored adjournment motion faced defeat when it was put for vote in the Lok Sabha. The result of the division was: Ayes – 128 and Noes – 252.

DISCUSSION ON DEMANDS FOR GRANTS

Lok Sabha passed Demands for Supplementary Grants (General) – 2005-06 and Excess Grants (General) – 2002-03 on August 8, 2005. Laxman Seth and Anil Basu participated in the discussion on behalf of the CPI(M).

Seth in his speech said that the mid-term appraisal report showed how the economic condition of the country became dismal during the NDA regime. But despite this, the meeting of the prime minister’s economic advisory council (EAC) held in May, 2005 considered two growth forecasts of 6.7 per cent in the base case and 7.2 per cent under the approved situation for 2005-2006. The EAC’s base case assumed a sectoral growth rate of 1.8 per cent for agriculture and allied sectors and 7 per cent for manufacturing. Saying that there is a huge resource crunch, with high revenue and fiscal deficits in the union budget, Seth stressed the need for resource mobilisation. And for this, the vast parallel economy of black money must be tapped. Seth pointed out that there are huge tax arrears amounting to nearly Rs 70,000 crore. The non-performing assets of banks (NPAs) account for another Rs 75,000 crore. He criticised the government for not making any attempt to unearth the black money. He also wanted plugging of large-scale evasion of taxes by corporate and business houses and the broadening of the tax net. He gave an example of how bad things were by citing the case of returns filed by the corporate houses. Only two per cent of those returns are checked on the plea that the government does not have sufficient machinery. Seth questioned why there is no sufficient machinery and if this was the case how the government can mobilise resources.

On the question of centre’s discrimination against Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states, Seth said this has resulted in lot of economic imbalance among the states. Earlier, these states had sacrificed because of ‘freight equalisation’ policy of the central government, which resulted in a situation where despite having abundant raw materials, no new industries came up in these states. Saying that financial institutions are bent upon

depriving these states for a long period, Seth questioned as to why the Credit Deposit Ratio (CDR) in these states is much lower than other states. He demanded the government  to take steps so that CDR can be balanced for improvement of these states.

The centre is depriving the West Bengal government of coal royalty on the plea that the state has a cess on the coal. The Supreme Court upheld the stand taken by the West Bengal government regarding imposition of cess on coal. Because of centre’s stand, the government of West Bengal is losing more than Rs 2,000 crore every year. And the state government has not been getting coal royalty for the last 15 years! Seth urged upon the government to look into these matters and see the state is no longer discriminated under the UPA regime.    

Participating in this discussion, Anil Basu of the CPI(M) said that attaining the targeted growth rate is very difficult given the erratic monsoon and sky-rocketing oil prices. He stressed the need to concentrate on every sector of the economy – from revenue collection to the industrial growth, the service sector, transport sector and, of course, the most important agriculture sector. Expressing concern at the decline in the purchasing power of the rupee, Basu felt that the expected growth in the market is not taking place due to this. Taking 1984 as the base year, the purchasing power of rupee was 19.84 in April 2004 and now it has come down to 18.08. The prime minister himself admitted that lack of growth in agriculture has had a dampening effect on the GDP performance. The crop production this year has been projected to decline as also the revenue earning. In April-May 2005, the income-tax revenue earning is down by 15 per cent, while corporate tax collection has declined by Rs 1070 crore compared to April-May, 2004. Excise Duty is still significantly lower by 16.4 per cent as in the same period in 2004. In the field of non-tax revenue, the increase is by three per cent. It is still less than 20.4 per cent compared to April-May, 2004.

Given this situation, a lot of attention has to be paid for realisation of bad loans. The finance ministry should take effective steps to see that such NPAs are realised. It cuts a sorry figure that even after 57 years of our Independence we could not develop our own low cost quality and affordable technology for rural areas. Till date there has been no proper study on how we can develop low cost, cost-effective and quality technology in the rural areas. The tractors which are available at present cost not less than Rs 3 lakh each. So, if a poor farmer wants to purchase a tractor, he has to pay this money by mortgaging his land. In Punjab and Haryana, there are hundreds of examples where farmers could not repay the loan amount and they had to lose their land for making payments. Basu contrasted this with the falling prices and low interest loans for buying cars. In the case of generator to draw water from deep well, the hindrance comes from the Department of Environment in such a manner that a farmer will not be able to get a cheap generator because of strict environment emission norm. This is threatening the livelihood of thousands of generator manufacturers and employees of small-scale industries in Agra and its surrounding areas. How would it be possible for the farmers to get a low-cost technology in the countryside? Has it ever been thought of, asked Basu. The cost of all the inputs – seeds, fertilisers, insecticides, electricity, diesel etc – have increased manifold. But the prices of crops, particularly cash crops are falling down through out the country. Basu underlined that development in agriculture cannot be achieved unless there is increase in public investment, provision of adequate and cheap inputs and low-cost quality technology in rural areas. He asked the finance minister to explain the development of infrastructure in rural areas under so-called ‘Bharat Nirman Yojana’. He concluded his speech with the demand for provision of free medical treatment for the poor in all hospitals, especially for cancer patients on humanitarian grounds.

BEEDI WORKERS’ PROBLEMS

The CPI(M) members in Lok Sabha raised the problems being faced by the 60 lakh beedi workers in the country. Moving a calling attention motion in the House, CPI(M) deputy leader P Karunakaran decried the non-implementation of Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976 and the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 in various states. He said the beedi cooperative societies are unable to bear the burden of huge amount of duty being levied by the government. Referring to the loan being provided for construction of houses for beedi workers, Karunakaran asked for the land value to be excluded from the total cost. He also urged the government to enhance the existing Rs 40,000 limit to Rs 60,000 for loans to beedi workers. Demanding the government to take immediate steps to implement Beedi Cigarette Act in those states where beedi is dominant, he said beedi production falls under unorganised sector and that more than 90 per cent of workers are women. He highlighted the exploitation of these workers due to non-implementation of the Act.

Karunakaran demanded construction of hospitals for beedi workers in Kerala, particularly in Kannur where beedi workers are concentrated more than in any other place in Kerala. He demanded implementation of a special insurance scheme covering all the workers in beedi industry, the premium for which could be paid either by the government or by the panchayats. He concluded his submission by asking for conversion of the loans given to workers as grants.

The CPI(M) leader in Lok Sabha, Basudeb Acharia intervened and raised the issue of a health scheme for the beedi workers, which was in existence previously. He said a substantial percentage of beedi workers suffer from tuberculosis. A hospital for beedi workers was sanctioned four years back at Jhalda in Purulia district of West Bengal under the earlier scheme. However, now the government of India has announced a new scheme and only Rs 2 crore will be provided for the construction of the said hospital. Moreover the responsibility of running the hospital will be entirely of the state government. Acharia asked whether the government would consider construction of this hospital under the earlier scheme and sanction Rs 2 crore as non-recurring expenditure for the construction of the hospital. As per the statement of the minister, only 1.2 lakh beedi workers are covered under the Provident Fund scheme today out of the 60 lakh workers in the country. He demanded bringing of all beedi workers under the PF Scheme and waiving of the loans taken by the cooperative societies.

WOMEN’S RESERVATION

CPI(M) member, Minati Sen participated in the debate on the Private Member’s Resolution regarding reservation of one-third of seats for women in all the state legislatures and parliament. She forcefully highlighted the contribution of women in societies in all ages and also brought out the sheer exploitation of women in the male-dominated society. Supporting the resolution, she said that a nation could be identified by the status of women in its society. Be it the Russian revolution, French revolution or even the Indian freedom struggle, women have always been in the forefront of the struggles. Despite the important role they play in the society, women are exploited and oppressed in every possible manner.

In India, many laws have been enacted to safeguard the interests of women since the time of Independence like the Special Marriage Act 1954, Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Immoral Traffic Act, 1956, Dowry (Prohibition) Act 1961, Child Marriage (Amendment) Act 1979, Commission for Sati 1987. There have also been many national-level policies like the National Plan for Action for Girl Child, National Policy for the Empowerment of Women etc. Despite all these, the situation of women in the country is bad. Incidents of rape, dowry, sexual harassment are on the rise. Crime against women is increasing by the day. The most alarming aspect is the decline in sex ratio. According to 2001 census, the sex ratio has declined. In 1991, there were 945 females per thousand males and in 2001 the figure has come down to 927. In our country, 7.5 per cent of the central government employees are women. In villages, 80 per cent of the labourers are women. They have no land of their own. The report of Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) shows that a pair of bullock works for 1064 hours a year, a man works for 1212 hours whereas a woman works for 3485 hours a year. According to Progress of the Women Report of UNIFEM, in the year 2002 in the entire world, the percentage of women representatives in parliament is 14 and in India, it is less than 9 per cent.

Minati Sen criticised the political parties which promised before elections to get the women’s reservation bill passed but conveniently forgot the issue after the elections. She was critical of the NDA government for evading introduction of the bill on the plea of lack of consensus. She contrasted this with how draconian, anti-people and anti-working class bills have been rushed through despite opposition of the Left and other parties in the past. Therefore, the women reservation bill in its present form, should be introduced and passed by voting. Only then will the true faces of political parties be exposed, she said.

(August 14, 2005).