Rajya Sabha discusses Motion of Thanks to President’s address

The Rajya Sabha yesterday took up discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to the joint session of Parliament.

    

Initiating the discussion, BJP member Kiran Choudhry said the government has taken monumental initiatives to double the income of farmers. Stating that the opposition is holding a false campaign against the Government over its efforts for Agriculture sector, the BJP member said instead the UPA government had kept the recommendations of the Dr Swaminathan’s Committee under cold storage. She further said the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several measures to ensure farmers to get more income for their produce. She also said the country is currently moving towards Viksit Bharat in real sense.

    

Leader of Opposition and Congress Leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of unemployment, price rise of commodities and depreciation of India rupee against US dollar. He accused the government of not fulfilling its promise of providing two crore jobs every year. Mr Kharge said that there are huge vacancies in different departments in the government but it is not filled. He alleged that farmers in the country are committing suicide due to lack of attention of government towards them. He also raised the issue of alleged atrocities against SCs and STs. The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha demanded for conducting caste census.  

Intervening into the discussion, Union Minister Piyush Goyal countered the allegation of Mr Kharge that farmers are committing suicides. Mr Goyal said that as per NCRB data, number of farmers who had committed suicides during 10 years of UPA regime are 57 per cent higher that 10 years of NDA rule. He also accused the Leader of Opposition of politicizing the recent Mahakumbh



incident.  

     

TMC MP Derek O’ Brien raised the issues of agriculture and unemployment and women’s reservation. He said, in the last five years of the NDA government, agricultural wage increased very marginally. He said, two out of five farmers are in debt and there is no legal guarantee for farmers.

  

DMK’s M Shanmugam accused the Centre of not paying attention to the various demands like metro and various infrastructure projects of the Tamil Nadu government.

     

Subhasish Khuntia of BJD alleged that the economic and social inequality is increasing and youth are struggling with unemployment.

     

Y V Subbareddy of YSRCP demanded the Centre to soon approve second revised cost estimates for Polavaram irrigation project.

   

Milind Deora of Shiv Sena said that the mandate given by the people of the country for the third term to Narendra Modi government reflects that the people are reposing faith in the policies and vision of this government. He said, the President’s address and the Union Budget have captured the challenges and opportunities lie before India.

     

Dr M Thambidurai of AIADMK demanded the inclusion of Valmiki and Tamil Nadu fisherman communities in Tribal category.

     

Besides, other members including Subhash Chandra Bose Pilli of YSRCP, Birendra Prasad Baishya of AGP, Sulata Deo of BJD and Ram Chander Jnagra and Banshilal Gurjar of BJP also participated in the discussion. However, BJP MP Mr Gurjar could not complete his speech due to the paucity of time and will resume his speech tomorrow. Later the, House was adjourned for the day. However, the discussion on Motion of Thanks remained inconclusive.