By Bhavana ‘Aparajita’
Shukla :
ON THURSDAY, the third day of
the Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s
Winter Session witnessed discussion on the supplementary
budget, an exchange of heated
arguments between ruling party and opposition leaders over
compensation for crop damage
to farmers in the State. Congress
MLAs staged a walk out and the
legislators staged an eye-catching protest as they came in attire
of monkeys. Singhar alleged that
monkeys are snatching jobs and
disturbing the law and order situation in the State.
The first two days of the session, which began on Monday
and Tuesday, saw considerable
uproar in the House. Wednesday
was a holiday due to the Bhopal
Gas Tragedy. Outside the House,
in a unique protest, Congress
MLA Sunil Uikey arrived dressed
as a monkey and carrying a razor,
depicting the BJP government
as a novice carrying a sharp tool
(to run the state).
As far as the serious business
inside the house is concerned,
there was a huge uproar over
death due to cough syrup and
the farmers’ losses due to the
flood.
Till the filing of this report
debate on the second supplementary budget presented on
Tuesday by Deputy Chief
Minister and Finance Minister
Jagdish Devda, was going on.
The Rs 13,476.94 crore budget includes Rs 8,448.57 crore
under the revenue head and Rs
5,028.37 crore under the capital
head.
Major allocations include the
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and
Ladli Bahna Scheme.
As per the details: Rs 4,000
crore under the Pradhan Mantri
Awas Yojana
Rs 1,794 crore for the
Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna
Yojana (Women & Child
Development)
Rs 500 crore for the
Bhavantar/flat rate scheme
(Farmers’ Welfare & Agriculture
Development).
In response to a question
posed by LOP Umang Singhar,
the State Government admitted
that 24 children have died in the
State due to cough syrup (Coldrif)
since September 4.
However,
regarding fixing responsibility,
the Government stated:
“The responsibility primarily
lies with Srisan Pharma, based
in Tamil Nadu, whose oversight
was the responsibility of the
Drugs Department of the Tamil
Nadu Government.”
Congress MLA Babu
Jhandewale said that during
Question Hour, “Farmers in
Shivpuri district have not yet
received compensation,
despite the Government’s
announcement that they
would be compensated at the
rate of 16,000 rupees per
hectare.
”
The Revenue Minister said,
“All farmers have been compensated for their losses.”
Approximately Rs 200 crore
has been paid.” Dissatisfied
with the minister’s response,
the Leader of the Opposition
said, “The estimate is Rs 5,000
crore, but so far only Rs 200
crore has been disbursed. It’s
a mere drop in the ocean.
Farmers across the State are
suffering. Why doesn’t the
Government talk about it
today? Instead, it’s citing figures from the Congress government
” Chief Minister Dr
Mohan Yadav said, “Your
Government used to pay Rs
3,000 per hectare, but we’re
paying Rs 16,000 per hectare.”
Another Congress legislature
claimed, no compensation for
excessive rainfall is being given to farmers. Congress MLA
Satish Sikarwar raised the
issue of farmers in Gwalior
district suffering losses due
to excessive rainfall, saying,
“Only three farmers were
reported to have suffered losses due to excessive rainfall, but
only Rs 15,000 compensation
was given.
” Whereas a large
number of farmers have suffered losses in several tehsils
of the district.” The Assembly
Speaker said, “There are established criteria for relief funds;
if a farmer does not meet those
criteria, he will not receive the
relief amount.” The supplementary budget of Rs 13,476
crore was discussed. 71 petitions were also presented in
the House on the third day.
Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya
said, “There are Urdu teachers throughout the State, but
in many places there are no
Urdu students. The School
Education Minister should
conduct a state-wide review.”
Minister Uday Pratap Singh
said that in Rajgarh district,
there are 20 Urdu teachers in
15 schools, while the number
of students is 200.
The minister said, “Teachers will be
removed from schools with
zero students and sent to
remote schools with Urdu students, where they will be
retained for three years.
Rationalisation is being done
for teachers of all subjects,
not just Urdu. Last year,
approximately 20,000 teachers were relocated. In schools
with fewer than 10 students,
teachers will be relocated.”
Kailash Vijayvargiya spoke
on allegations of altering
questions: Minister Kailash
Vijayvargiya raised the issue
of allegations of changing
questions in the Assembly,
saying, “Allegations have been
made both inside and outside
the House that members’
questions were changed.
This
is a direct question on the
Chair. This is highly objectionable, this practice is
wrong. You are not performing your duties honestly and
then questioning the entire
system.” Meanwhile, Leader
of the Opposition Umang
Singhar said, “This is Question
Hour. If this issue needs to be
debated, then a separate 10-
minute time slot should be set
aside.”
Assembly proceedings
began with Speaker Narendra
Singh Tomar congratulating
everyone on Cheetah Day and
said that this species is continuously increasing in
Madhya Pradesh. The
Assembly Speaker also congratulated everyone on the
Navy Day