People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

THE monsoon session of parliament has been extended by two days and thus concluded on August 30. In this fifth session of the fourteenth Lok Sabha which commenced on July 25, 2005, a total of 16 bills have been passed including the most important ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2005 which seeks to provide for enhanced livelihood security to the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household. This bill was passed after a marathon debate lasting for over 13 hours. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Bill, 2005 passed by the house during the Session is another welfare measure to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women who are victims of violence of any kind. Another path-breaking legislation, the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2005 provides for devolution of interest in coparcenary property to a daughter in the same manner as the son.

There were also general discussions on Supplementary Demands for Grants (General), 2005-06; the Demands for Excess Grants (General) 2002-03; the Supplementary Demands for Grants (Railways) 2005-06 and the Railway (Amendment) Bill, 2005. Lok Sabha also discussed two adjournment motions. The first related to the failure of the government to protect the eastern borders of the country against massive illegal immigration from Bangladesh and the second regarding the alleged failure of the government to take action against the persons indicted by the Nanavati Commission. Both the motions were defeated after long debates. 

Rajya Sabha discussed the Action Taken Report on Nanavati Commission Report. The Upper House had discussions on the prime minister’s official visit to USA and the defence minister’s statement on the ‘New Framework for the US-India Defence Relationship’. Both the Houses had discussions on a number of ‘short duration discussions’, calling attention motions on several important matters such as drought and floods in several parts of the country, state of agriculture, poverty and unemployment in the country, hike in petrol and diesel prices and so on. 

The ‘Sree Chitra Tirrunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum (Amendment) Bill, 2005’ was passed by parliament on August 29.  CPI(M) members, Ram Chandra Dome and Varkala Radhakrishnan participated in the discussion. They expressed concern that modern medical treatment has gone beyond the reach of the poor and middle class people.  Every new device or technology that is coming up in the field of medical science is being controlled by big business houses, especially by multinational companies, reminded Ramchandra Dome. He pointed out the need for a country like India to have more AIIMS like institutes across the country so that super-specialised treatment is available to common people at affordable cost.

Varkala said the Sree Chira institute is one among the many institutions which have been during pioneer research and development work in our country to improve the medical services. He stressed that the government should mobilise adequate resources for indigenous research and development work in medical field by supporting such institutes. The CPI(M) members demanded from the government to bring a comprehensive legislation to regulate standardisation and control of rampant privatisation and commercialisation of medical care, education and hospitals.

On the day Warehousing Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2005 was passed in the Lok Sabha.  In the debate the CPI(M) member, Lakshman Seth said that through this Bill the government has decided to give more autonomy to Central Warehousing Corporation. It has a vast potentiality for expansion and growth. Storage-cum-marketing infrastructure is very much important to cope up with the needs of industrial growth and economic growth. So, there should be warehousing facilities throughout the country. He lauded the employees of the Corporation for their untiring efforts in bringing profits. He criticized the previous NDA government for retrenching about 4000 employees through VRS. He asked the present government to protect the interest of the employees. He warned against any attempts to privatize this mini-ratna company in the name of giving autonomy.

Lok Sabha passed the Railway (Amendment) Bill, 2005 on the last day of the session. Rising to speak on the occasion, the CPI(M) member, Sujan Chakraborty said the setting up of Railway Land Development Authority should have separate identity since it relates to the land issues. The railways should thoroughly study the prospective plan and tackle the issue of land use very categorically, he suggested. He wanted that the programmes or projects should not be finalised without consulting the state governments as there were problems of hawkers and encroachers which should be settled. With the money earned from commercialisation of railway land, the railways must keep a separate pool so that the fund can be used for passengers amenities, he said.

K S Manoj of CPI(M) drew the attention of the government regarding the need to ensure minimum support price for fish and marine products and right to first sale of catch to the fishermen. He said, there are about 1.5 to 2 million fishermen in the country. Our country is earning nearly Rs 6,300 crore from export of marine products. The estimated first sale value of the marine fish landing per year is nearly Rs 13,000 crore. But the plight of the fishermen is still backward in spite of their earning crores of rupees for their country. One of the reasons for this is that the fishermen are not getting remunerative price for their catch. Even though the right to first sale of the catch is given to the fishermen, this is taken away by the middlemen who exploit them.  In order to empower these backward classes, remunerative price for their catch should be ensured, exploitation by the middlemen should be stopped; and to control the market economy, cooperative movement in this sector should be strengthened and extended to areas where it is non-existent and a nationwide cooperative network be established, he said.

Sunil Khan of CPI(M) demanded review of allocation of slots for programmes being telecast by Doordarshan Kendra, Kolkata with a view to maximising revenue by the Kendra. He said almost all the time slots for sponsored programmes of Kolkata Doordarshan were lying vacant for years together resulting in huge loss of revenue, whereas number of producers are waiting for allotment of time slots for their programmes. He charged that Kolkata Doordarshan was allotting time slots to new programmes at much lower price by avoiding the bidding process. No punitive action has been taken against any of the defaulters. No legal action has been initiated to realise payments from default producers.

NREG BILL PASSED

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on August 23 after long discussions.  CPI(M) members, Nikhilananda Sar, P Mohan, Rupchand Pal, Basudeb Acharia and Varkala Radhakrishnan spoke in support of the bill. They said it was a beginning of a new era and wanted the government to give priority to  land reform measures, land development and land productivity.  The government must be serious in tackling the question of poverty, they underlined and pointed out that this bill is only a beginning of the effort. They demanded that the act must cover the rest of millions of our mute, hungry people by extending this programme to all parts of the country as soon as possible.

In Rajya Sabha the discussion took place on the bill as amended by the Lok Sabha.  Participating in the debate, the CPI(M) leader, Nilotpal Basu said that the future of this bill will not only depend on its enactment in to a law, but also on the entire political spectrum of the political parties constituting the polity in the country. As the contribution of agriculture to GDP has dropped to around 25 per cent from 56 per cent in 1950-51, the quality of life in the rural areas has come down. Therefore, this bill tries to reverse the process of under-spending in the rural areas. The need of the hour is to mobilise the entire public opinion. Gram Sabhas will have to be activated.  Anybody looking for employment must be provided with an opportunity for employment, asserted Basu.

There was a short duration discussion in Rajya Sabha regarding the state of agriculture, poverty and unemployment in the country in the light of Mid-term Appraisal of Tenth Five Year Plan. CPI(M)’s newly-elected member Sitaram Yechury initiated the discussion. The entire House listened to his speech with rapt attention. (Excerpts of his speech has been published in the previous issue of People’s Democracy).

The protection of Women from Domestic Violence Bill, 2005 seeking to provide effective protection to women from physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic violence at home was introduced on August 22 and passed by the House on August 24.  In the debate the participated members are all women with some exception. From the CPI(M) side Minati Sen, C S Sujatha and P Satheedevi spoke in support of the bill. They reminded that this has been a long-pending demand of women’s organizations. Saying that although the bill was a comprehensive one but some other forms of violence like not letting her avail educational opportunities, denial of reproductive rights, denial of access to health facilities and opportunities and above all denial to her political rights must also have been included, they stressed.  Pointing out that the problem of domestic violence is deep rooted, the CPI(M) members called for making the people conscious about this issue.  

VIOLATION OF LABOUR LAWS

CPI(M) members Sunil Khan, Basudeb Acharia, Varkala Radhakrishnan, Lakshman Seth and Santasri Chatterjee strongly raised the issue of violation of labour laws in the country, particularly in private and unorganised sectors through a calling attention motion on August 23 in Lok Sabha. Moving the motion, Sunil Khan said lack of enforcement of various labour laws in the country was a matter of great concern for the working class.

There is the Contract Labour (Abolition and Regulation) Act, 1970 but till date every provision of the Act is being violated by the employers. Labour is being compelled to work for more than 10 to 12 hours a day with no minimum wage. Always the government machinery remains a mute spectator. There is no punishment for the employers who have not deposited their share in Employees Provident Fund. The CPI(M) members expressed concern that violation of labour laws was occurring even in public sector companies.  They cited the cases of employees in Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Ltd. (BOGL) not getting salary for 11 months and in Hindustan Steel Construction Ltd (HSCL) in Durgapur, Bokaro, Visakhapatnam, Bhilai for 21 to 24 months.

Joining the issue, the CPI(M) leader, Basudeb Acharia said, the violation of labour laws in India is not a rare phenomenon with many MNCs as well as indigenous capitalists blatantly resorting to it. He demanded stringent punishment for violators of the labour laws.

The CPI(M) member, Matilal Sarkar in Rajya Sabha forcefully demanded revival of small scale industrial units in the country.  He said, according to the Third All India Census of Small-Scale Industrial Units (conducted with reference year 2001-02), as many as 8,87,427 units out of the total of 22,62,401 units were found closed.  The figure of closure has risen to the tune of 39 per cent.  A grim picture is revealed thereby.  A bulk of the workers engaged in these units belong to the category of common artisans having no other means of living.  The closures of these SSI units have rendered lakhs of workers jobless.  He demanded immediate review of the government’s policies and unrestricted imports to stop the trend of sickness and closure of SSI units.