Opposition mounts attack on direct cash transfer
The discussions for ending the logjam in Parliament continued on Wednesday as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath met Opposition leaders of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.
The Government had indicated on Tuesday that it was willing to debate the issue with voting. Nath said the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha could decide the format of the debate. Swaraj said the Opposition had not come down from its demand for voting on FDI in retail.
The Government’s main worry is the wording of the motion, as it believes that the policy decisions cannot be voted in Parliament. A final decision is likely to be announced on Saturday.
Cash Transfer Opposed
The Opposition, meanwhile, continued to put pressure on the Centre for a discussion on the Unique Identification Authority of India Bill in Parliament before implementing the direct cash transfer scheme. The issue is likely to be raised in Parliament by the Opposition on Thursday.
BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said not even Re 1 extra money was being given to the beneficiaries. “They are changing the way of delivering the same subsidy,” he said, and added that four lakh villages do not have banks and covering them by business correspondents requires a lot of planning.
“Most poor people still do not have Aadhaar cards,” he added.
Plea for debate
The CPI(M) said the Government was not just moving away from subsidies, but from the poor people, too.
“Rs 5 lakh crore was being given as subsidies to big corporates as tax breaks etc,” CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said and added that there should be a debate on the UIDAI Bill in Parliament.
A statement by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the scheme was meant to actually cut subsidies since the cash to be transferred would not cover the increased costs of the same amount of subsidised foodgrains.
“This will have an adverse impact on increasing malnutrition and hunger,” the statement added. The CPI(M) also objected to linking MNREGA wages to the Aadhaar cards.
“Without any discussion in Parliament on the proposed Bill for UID, pushing through such changes will have far-reaching implications for manual workers,” it added.
Keywords: Logjam in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Kamal Nath, Opposition leaders, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. FDI, retail
Comments:
NOVEMBER 28, 2012: India's population is a mountain of S-H-I-T. Bal
Thackeray and Raj Thackeray are particles of S-H-I-T in this mountain
of S-H-I-T. Saying that the Congress party has the numbers to let
Foreign Direct Investment sail through is like saying Shiv Sena has
the numbers to jail anyone writing against particles of S-H-I-T like
Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray. What matters is not who has the
numbers but who has nuclear weapons. The British did not have the
numbers in 1857 yet enforced their will by killing, by guns and sword,
over ten million Indians in just the ten years after 1857 and continue
to enforce their will today of which the ability of Anglo-Americans to
bring Foreign Direct Investment -- via Indian governments which are
proxies for the CIA with all political parties controlled by CIA-RAW -
- is an example. But not guns and sword but nuclear weapons are what
matter today and who has the nuclear weapons?
IndiasTraitorGovtAndMediaDOTblogspot.com Satish Chandra
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