OVER Rs 9,000 crore has been earmarked to address the issue of malnutrition in children, pregnant women and adolescent girls, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

 

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said the Government had launched POSHAN Abhiyaan on December 18, 2017 for a three-year time frame commencing 2017 -18 with an overall budget of Rs 9,046 crore.

 

“To ensure a holistic approach, all 36 States and Union Territories and districts have been covered. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of children from 0-6 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner during three years with fixed targets,” she said during the Question Hour.

 

THE Centre has disbursed Rs 12,305 crore so far to beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN programme that aims to boost farmers income by providing them Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments.

“Recently, the Government has initiated the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme effective from February 1 to enable farmers to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs,” Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

 

OVER 90,000 cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were pending for trial in the country by the end of 2016, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said 36,022 cases were registered under the POCSO Act in 2016 and 15,283 of them were pending investigation. As many as 90,205 cases registered under the POCSO Act were pending trial at the end of 2016, she said during Question Hour in Lok Sabha.

 

AS MANY as 30 private members’ bills, including the one to ban non-vegetarian food at official meetings and functions, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The bill to prohibit non-vegetarian food at official functions was introduced by Parvesh Sahib Singh (BJP).

 

N K Premachandran (RSP) moved a bill for maintaining status quo on religious practices of Sabrimala temple that existed before September 1, 2018. Supreme Court on September 28 last year, declared a Kerala government law barring women aged between 10 and 40 years from entering the Sabarimala temple unconstitutional.

The SC judgement threw Sabarimala temple open for women of all age groups.

 

 

CUTTING across party lines, most Rajya Sabha members on Friday supported a private member’s bill, which proposed to provide reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies to ensure proportionate representation.

 

V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSR Congress party moved a private member’s bill. The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (insertion of new articles 330A and 332A) proposes to ensure a proportionate representation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) in representative bodies -- House of the People and the Legislative Assemblies of the State.

Introducing the bill, Reddy said that only 18 per cent and 20 per cent of the total members elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014 respectively were Other Backward Classes (OBC), whereas it accounts for around 40-55 per cent of the total population.

He said that in 2001, the percentage of OBC members in Parliament was 18 per cent while it was just 11 per cent in 1984.

Reddy also demanded special law to protest OBCs from atrocities on the lines of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

 

THE Rajya Sabha on Friday rejected by voice vote a bill seeking setting up of a system to improve productivity of Parliament.

The Parliament (Enhancement of Productivity) Bill, 2017 was introduced by Naresh Gujaral (SAD) and the House discussed it for two and half hours.

Since, Gujaral was not present, Deputy Chairman Harivansh put the bill to vote, which was defeated by voice vote.

In his reply, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, “All leaders and members should sit together and decide. But we cannot pass a private member bill on this.”