Hon.
Speaker, Sir, the Government is fully cognizant of the employment
concerns that our people abroad have in the context of the COVID pandemic.
Especially in the Gulf, there has been tremendous economic and social
disruption that has impacted them. We have softened it somewhat. But the real
challenges are there to be addressed. Let me assure the House that we take this
as a priority. Our ambassadors and senior officials spend time and effort to go
into these problems in the greatest of details. We have been in regular touch
with most community organizations and get their feedback on both the health
situation and the economic recovery. We are aware that there are problems of
compensation, re-employment and re-skilling that need solutions. These are at the
core of our agenda with our partner Governments. The welfare of students
studying140 abroad has also
been a particular concern to all of us. Across the world, our embassies have
been given instructions160 to
reach out to them, monitor their situation, and assist their return where
required. As with workers and professionals, the focus has now shifted to the
going back to universities. Some countries have been more open in this regard
than others, obviously reflecting their particular COVID challenge. Therefore,
this remains a high priority and our endeavour will be to encourage an early
return to normalcy.
Seafarers
have been another category requiring particular attention. We have been working
with shipping companies across the world to ensure their well-being and, wherever
required, we are helping them return to India. The challenges presented by crew
change procedures were daunting, but the flexibility shown by various
stakeholders allowed us to overcome them. Members would280 also recall the predicament of two crews
who were in particular difficulty outside Chinese ports. Their situation was
eventually resolved through great perseverance. We continue to interact with
many Governments to devise more friendly procedures for crew change
requirements. 320 Our
fishermen have also been affected by the difficulties arising from the
pandemic. Particularly, we saw serious problems faced by those who were working
out of Iran. Some Gulf nations also witnessed this, perhaps to a lesser degree.
Many Members had expressed their anxiety at that time and here too, the
repatriation phase is over and the re-employment phase has just started. Let me
underline that from the very beginning, the Modi Government has been deeply
committed to the welfare and protection of Indians abroad. We value and nurture
our relationship with the Persons of Indian Origin. The COVID pandemic was420 a test of our commitment on this matter,
and whether it was the problem of the workers or the students, the professionals
or the tourists, we have risen to the occasion. A huge collective effort by
nameless and faceless individuals from our embassies and other organizations in
India and abroad, made that possible. Like the nation at home, they too480 were inspired by the Prime Minister’s leadership
and vision. I wish to assure this august House that in the days ahead, as our
quest for normalcy progresses, as the global market place and work place resume
activities, as centres of study reopen their doors, we will be there to
encourage, facilitate, secure and support.
Hon.
Speaker Sir, I rise to oppose this Bill because of three reasons. Firstly, the
Bill violates the Constitutional principle of separation of powers as it560 assigns the responsibility of issuing an
adoption order to a District Magistrate rather than the Civil Court. An
adoption order, under Section 61 of the principal Act, requires a deliberation
on the welfare of the child and creates legal rights for the child and the
adoptive parents. Thus, it has to be a Civil Court, which is the suitable
authority to be dealing with this process. Secondly, it further violates the
Constitutional principle of separation of powers by providing for640 an appeal against an adoption order to
be made to the Divisional Commissioner, instead of giving a Civil Court the
final say over the legal process of adoption. Thirdly, it delegates
responsibilities to the District Magistrate and Additional District Magistrate
including sanctioning and monitoring child care institutions and overseeing the
functioning of various agencies under the principal Act. This means700 that the protection of children under
the principal Act suddenly becomes much more dependent on a single authority
controlled by the Government. For these reasons, I have to oppose the proposed
Bill because there are major concerns being expressed by stakeholders, experts,
and others, which would also warrant reconsideration in addition to the
Constitutional provisions that I have mentioned today.
Hon. Chairman Sir, talking about the
revenue side first, there are two primary sources of Railways’ revenue. One is
the freight and passenger traffic and the other is miscellaneous sources. In
the freight traffic, as we know, most of the800
revenue comes from the bulk transport of coal, followed by iron ore, cement,
food grains and fertilizers. We are largely dependent on the bulk
transportation of coal. Slowly and gradually, it is decreasing day by day. So,
since the share840 of coal is
coming down, I want to understand from the hon. Minister what exactly we are
doing to expand our limited freight basket so that we can increase our revenue.
Secondly, the Railways have been constantly losing the share of the freight
traffic to other modes of transport on account of price competitiveness and the
carrying capacity issues. To some extent, a solution has been found by way of
the Dedicated Freight Corridors. It is because in India we used to run both the
passenger and the freight traffic on the same track. Now, we have Dedicated
Freight Corridors. Railways have a tendency to utilize the profits earned from
the freight traffic to compensate for the losses made in960 the passenger traffic. Here, what is
important to understand is that these are COVID times. Now, we hear about the980 third wave of COVID and we see a fresh
series of lockdowns in certain cities of India. Of course, I agree that the
vaccination drive has started and more than two crore people in India have been
vaccinated. But what I want to understand from the hon. Minister whether he is
hopeful that the passenger traffic is going to return to normalcy level in
these COVID times. It is because we eventually have to be concerned about the
losses that we are making in the passenger traffic which are being compensated
by the profits that we make in the freight traffic. The core issue is that the
Railways have not been able to generate surplus and that is why we will be
sourcing most of the capital expenditure from the budget resources of the
Government and from the extra-budgetary resources, which1120 is not a very favourable situation. The
more we rely on our extra-budgetary resources, the more the financial situation
of the Railways is going to worsen. So, our operating ratio becoming lower is
an important issue. Over the past few years, it has remained at more than 90
per cent. That remains the core issue for the Railways to be addressed.
Indian Railways is the world’s
largest passenger carrier and fourth largest freight carrier. It is a safe,
efficient, and competitive means of transport. Now there are technological
advances in Indian Railways. The question before us is how to save Indian
Railways from the economic crisis. Ninety per cent of the total revenue is from
the budgetary means only. The expenditure also is rising on one side. So, it is
a difficult situation. What we are doing now is damage1260 repair and crisis management.
Expenditure on fuel and electricity is also increasing. There are only two ways
before us. 1280 One is to
reduce the expenditure and the other is to develop non-budgetary revenues. With
regard to reduction of expenditure, newspapers are reporting that we are going
ahead with some moves like freezing new appointments, closure of uneconomic
routes, reduction in the manpower, and various other expenditure control
methods. We understand the compelling situation of the Government. But while
implementing cost reduction measures, we have to be very careful and understand
the ground reality. This privatization process in the Railways is very dangerous.
You are doing this privatization without any limits. Indian Railways is the
property of the nation. It is very valuable and very precious. If you blindly
hand this over to the private sector, it will be very dangerous.1400 Indian Railways has launched the
process of opening up the train operations to private entities on more than 100
destinations. It has invited tenders for that. The Railway Board has moved
ahead with its long-pending plan, setting a tentative1440 schedule for privatization. Hon.
Minister also said that trains like Tejas are also going to be handed over to
the private sector. I would like to say that the hon. Minister and the
Government should think well and this kind of tendencies should be curbed. If
you hand over everything to the private sector, it would be really a threat for
the nation. So, I humbly request the Government to desist from this kind of
things. We have to understand the realities. We are prepared to cooperate with
the Government for rebuilding the Railways. We are prepared to play a
constructive role in this. However, the Government should keep the public property
and should not hand it over to private sector like this. 1562
