People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

CPI(M) Parliamentary Office

IN Lok Sabha this week, while supporting the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Bill 2009, Dr Anup Kumar Saha sought strong provisions to prevent trading of human organs and facilitate organ transplantation for needy patients. The move to make the attending physician or another medical practitioner in case of absence of neurologist eligible to declare brain death is welcoming step. However, these doctors should not be from the transplant team but from the select panel made by an appropriate authority. The government should set up centres for organ retrieval within a radius of 50-70 km. Full protection should be provided to the vulnerable sections of society. Exceptional circumstances necessitating organ donation by minors and mentally challenged persons need to be specified in the Act itself. There should be strict vigilance and severe punishment against organ trafficking. Only making a law is not sufficient. Dr Anup also welcomed the expansion of the definition of near relatives as well as the concept of swap donation with the approval of the appropriate authority. The composition of the Authorisation Committee should be entirely left to the discretion of the states and union territories. The trauma centres be utilised as centres of organ retrieval. The government should take publicity measures to create awareness regarding organ donation in our country.

A Sampath opposed the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks Laws) Amendment Bill 2009, saying it is a continuation of the process to privatise the Indian banking. India now has the third largest banking network in the world; but the government wants to kill the golden goose while our people need more banking facilities and more efficient services. The government also intends to take away some of the powers the Reserve Bank of India is having. Sampath asked what the experience has been of the nations that have denationalised or privatised their banks.

About the current global economic meltdown which started in the United States, the CPI(M) MP said it was a manipulated crisis. The finance minister said our banks would not collapse as we have a different system. But the government wants to follow the same path which led many US banks to collapse.

Sampath also took up the issue of the State Bank of Travancore and the State Bank of Indore, saying the people would not tolerate their killing. He also referred to the emergence of a mafia in the banking sector with the connivance of self-financing educational institutions, the issue of educational loans, vacant posts and outsourcing. As for social justice, he charged that the number of bank employees belonging to the SC, ST, OBC and minority categories is coming down.

In Rajya Sabha, Md Amin spoke on the Appropriation (No 3) Bill, moved by the finance minister. He asked how the government proposed to tackle tax evasions and defaults in payment of tax by the corporate houses. It is the common people who are contributing funds to the exchequer which the corporates are looting. He asked the government to clarify the discrepancies in the figures of tax arrears, and demanded government employee status for the Anganwadi workers and helpers.

Supporting the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research Puducherry (Amendment) Bill 2010. Moinul Hassan said it is very necessary to set up more medical colleges in the country. But the MCI’s permission is one of the major hurdles in setting up medical colleges. T K Rangarajan took up the cause of about 1,240 representatives from Group B, C and D employees under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

SELF-FINANCING

INSTITUTIONS

K N Balagopal moved a resolution for a comprehensive central legislation to regulate fees, admission and academic quality in private professional institutes and private deemed universities. This he said is necessary to ensure social justice, excellence through merit based admissions, academic excellence through qualified teaching faculty, and prevent capitation fee and commercialisation of education. He also wanted a higher education fund for giving assistance to the needy students.

Speaking on the resolution, Balagopal said the Supreme Court had directed that a comprehensive legislation of this kind must be passed. However, no effective steps have been taken to enact such a law during the last six years since the judgement came. There is a mushroom growth of self-financing educational institutions in the country, especially in the south, and a lot of cases related to mal-administration of self-financing colleges are coming before the court every day. But there is no effective law in the country to decide about the fees payable by the students, no provision for reservation in admissions and no provision for economically backward students. In Kerala, at least a dozen students have committed suicide in the last few years because of the harassment by the management, as they could not pay the fees. We cannot reverse or stop the self-financing but social justice should be there. In regard to quality of education also, there are no proper rules for selection of teachers and other staff. The MCI, AICTE, MCTE and other institutions have failed to ensure quality in educational institutions. As regards the teaching faculty and infrastructure, a recent judgement of the Kerala High Court said no new engineering colleges must be allowed as qualified teachers are not available. However, though good teachers are there aplenty in the country, they are not being paid well. In self-financing colleges, teachers and other staff are working as contract labour. The CPI(M) MP also took up the issue of educational loans for students, loot in the name of providing education and the confusion prevailing after the TMA Pai Foundation case.

While supporting the Coinage Bill 2011, Tarini Kanta Roy asked the government to consider the recommendations made by the standing committee on finance and incorporate them in the bill. The government has withdrawn the 25 paise coins, because of which people are facing problems. Roy also referred to the problem of fake currency, adding that fake currencies are coming out of ATMs of several banks. The ATM system must therefore be made foolproof, he added.