The Lok Sabha passed ‘The Supplementary Demands for Grants – First Batch for 2022-23 and Demand for Excess Grants for 2019-20’. The bill authorises the government to spend additional 3.25 lakh crore rupees in Financial Year 2023.
Replying to the debate, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted that Indian economy is going strong with its highest growth rate among the major economies and inflation going down. She also rejected the opposition’s criticism of the economy that it is likely to be hit by stagflation and said India is seeing high growth while inflation has now dipped below the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent. Retail inflation has moderated to an 11-month low of 5.8 per cent in November from 6.77 per cent in the previous month.
The government will bring it down further for the sake of common people, she said while replying to a discussion on the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants 2022-23. She said, the government is constantly watching the price situation of essential commodities.
With regard to fiscal deficit, the Finance Minister said the government would be able to meet the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of the GDP for the current financial year. The government is committed to the path of fiscal consolidation, she said.
On non-performing assets, Sitharaman said it has come down drastically to 7.28 per cent at the end of March 2022 due to various measures taken by the Modi government.
On the declining value of the rupee against the US dollar, she said, the domestic unit is appreciating against all other currencies, and the fall against the greenback is lower as compared to other currencies.
Quoting the World Bank report, she said India’s forex reserves is one of the highest in the world and this provides a cushion against the global spill-over.
Participating in the debate, Supriya Shule of NCP said, the government should not take piecemeal measures and instead table a comprehensive bill to give reservation benefits to different communities in all states.
Ranjeetsinha Naik Nimbalkar of BJP, Hanuman Beniwal of RLP and P. Ravindhranath of AIADMK demanded reservation benefits for different communities in their states under appropriate categories.
Lok Sabha also took up the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 for consideration and passage.
Supriya Shule of NCP said, the government should not take piecemeal measures and instead table a comprehensive bill to give reservation benefits to different communities in all states.
Ranjeetsinha Naik Nimbalkar of the BJP, Hanuman Beniwal of RLP and P. Ravindhranath of AIADMK demanded reservation benefits for different communities in their states under appropriate categories.
Replying to a question, Union Minister Piyush Goyal told Lok Sabha that the success rate of the start-ups in India is higher than the rest of the world and there were 84,012 recognised start-ups in the country at the end of November. He said, to boost the start-up ecosystem, the government launched the Start-up India initiative on January 16, 2016, along with an action plan was also put in place. Start-ups are prone to failures but the success rate of start-ups in India is relatively higher than the rest of the world. The number of recognised startups has increased from 452 in 2016 to 84,012 as on November 30, 2022, the Minister said.
Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took a swipe at opposition parties, saying the BSNL suffered badly due to certain political parties as it was used as a cash cow by some people who are still members of Parliament. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a huge project worth 1.64 lakh crore rupees for the revival of BSNL, and this will transform the telecom PSU completely. He said, the BSNL will soon launch 4G and 5G networks designed, developed and made in the country as per Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. He said at present, mobile data in India is one of the cheapest in the world as one gigabyte data is available for less than 20 rupees. This was around 200 rupees during the UPA rule, the minister said. He said the revival measures focus on infusing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating spectrum, de-stressing its balance sheet and augmenting its fibre network by merging the Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited with the BSNL.
Earlier, soon after the Question Hour, Congress members led by Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress members walked out of the House, accusing the government of not allowing a discussion on the sensitive India-China border issue.
As soon as the Question Hour ended, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress demanded that a discussion on the Indo-China border situation be held, saying the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the India-China war in 1962.
In 1962, when India-China war took place, Nehru in this House had given 165 MPs chance to speak, and a decision was taken on what to do only after that, Chowdhury said.
Responding to the Congress leader’s demand, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said a decision will be taken on it in the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee.
As the Speaker continued with the proceedings of the House, the Congress, as well as the members of TMC, staged a walkout in protest and accused the government of not allowing a discussion on the India-China border issue.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay of TMC said, his party members were staging a walkout in protest against the attitude” of the government.
Opposition members had walked out of Lok Sabha in protest against various issues soon after the House met as well.
As soon as the House met for the day, members from the Congress and the DMK wanted to raise certain issues. One of the members displayed a printout with the words “Justice for Stan Swamy”.
The Speaker told the protesting members that the Question Hour was important. However, they sought to raise various issues.
Later, members belonging to Congress, DMK, NCP and the NC among others walked out of the House.
During the Zero Hour, Janardhan Singh Sigriwal of BJP raised the issue of Bihar hooch tragedy in the Lok Sabha demanding immediate suspension of Superintendent of Police of Saran. He said claimed that people are dying in large numbers consuming illicit liquor in Bihar. About a dozen people have lost their lives in today’s hooch tragedy in Saran district of Bihar, he said.
His party colleague Ravi Kishan Shukla raised the issue of the death of young actors in gyms. Mr. Shukla expressed concern over such incidents and demanded that the Union Health Ministry set up a committee to look into the matter. The Health Ministry should set up a probe committee to ascertain why such deaths are happening, he said.