Mr.
Deputy Chairman, Sir, I thank all those who have expressed their support
for this Bill. I consider myself lucky. Actually, I should have
opened the account with the Question Hour in the House, but I was not
given the opportunity. I will point out the issues which can create problems. I
think some issues have not been considered. The idea is good. It is an
excellent idea; there is no doubt about it. I was quite happy that it
was across party lines. It proves that nationalism does not have a
colour. It is only the colour of motherland that makes you talk
about it. While being very positive on the overall concept, I have certain
issues which I120 will place before the House and then
express my views on this matter.
The
first issue is the numbers. The140 (1)
Bill talks about a minimum of one year’s compulsory military training. Now, if
you just go by a rough calculation, it talks about the age between 14 to
50. I do not know if a person in the age of 50 would like to go for it. In
politics, we may call someone young even if he is 65 years old, but in
military training, I do not think 50 is a very conducive age. We
allow soldiers to retire at the age of 40. Physically, it may not be possible
to give military training to those who are240 above 30 years of
age. The second aspect is that even if you consider it from the age of 18 to
25, that would itself make about 14 to 15 crore eligible persons. We have 130
crore people.280 If this is the age criterion, you
will get two (2) crore per year and
for eight years, there will be 16 crore of youths who will be eligible.
If 50 per cent of them are fit for military training, you have eight crore persons
to be trained. The number is huge.
Sir,
the Bill provides for a minimum one year’s training. In fact, one solution
which I can see, was suggested by my honourable friend, to which I will360
come later. I will just talk about the Bill first. The quantum of expenditure
required for this, will be nothing less than Rs. 60,000 crore per year. Let us
assume that we manage Rs. 60,000 crore from somewhere by taking small quantity
from different heads. How do you train them? How many trainers would you
require? I will420 have to put the full Army to
train them. It will require expenditure and infrastructure, if I have to fulfil
the requirement under the Bill. If it is passed, we (3) would have no choice afterwards. We
will have to go by what is said in the Bill. Though I do agree, to
an extent, that some people may be considering480 it as livelihood, as
mentioned by one of the hon. Members, I disagree with the basic concept that no
one goes to get himself killed at the front only for livelihood. There has to
be some sort of pride in it. I have taken cognizance of the confusion at fairs
in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. I have issued instructions that they should do
it in a district, or, they should do it by increasing the number of days in
Madhya560
Pradesh, Bihar and other areas. For instance, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are
areas where young generation wants to get into the Army. So, we will work out
proper fairs. That is one aspect on the sight. In a way, the600
concept is good and while appreciating the concept, I feel, (4) we should think about certain hours
of training in our schools. Of course, the NCC has a sanctioned strength of 14
lakhs for a very long time. Three or four years back, the Government decided to
increase it by 2 lakhs, making it 16 lakhs. I think it is inadequate.
When we look at the NCC today and the one that was there when we were young, we
find a huge difference. Today, the number of students has increased beyond
control. So, it would be a much reasonable700 thing to introduce a
compulsory training for a certain number of hours for completing the
graduation. It can be introduced720 as a class or it can be introduced
as a completely separate course to be taken by a student during his college
tenure. He can take it in the first year or in the second year. We can
work out something like that. With the help of the Members who (5) have shown deep interest in the
subject, I would have a discussion as to how to go about the issue.
If we can work out something, if we can start it on a trial basis, let us do it
in some districts where there is more enthusiasm, in those districts which face
the border, and that can include partial military training, like 50 or 60 hours
during the course of840 graduation. It can be done over
a period of time. It need not be on a weekly basis. Just as we take
History, Mathematics, etc., we can take one course of defence training. But I
feel, along with this, what we need is nation-building and character building. That
does not come only through military training. It is only one of the
sources. There are organizations, but I will not go into those things. I feel
that our teaching quality has also declined. Value education is nowhere to be
seen. So, (6) we need to take all these aspects into
consideration before we come to a type of conclusion. With these remarks, I
wish to say that I have noted the sentiments960 of the hon.
Members. In view of the explanations that I have given, the Bill may
kindly be withdrawn and980 I assure that after consulting the hon. Members,
we will come out with an appropriate mechanism on the issue. It may take a few
months, but I will definitely take an initiative.
Sir,
I would like to draw the attention of the hon. Minister to the
fact that something could be done to target subsidy to the poorest of the poor
farmers and not to the rich people. Sir, the subsidy amount, as I mentioned
earlier, has been reducing gradually from Rs. 99,000 crore to Rs. 70,000 crore.
Yet, it has not solved the problem. I do not1080 know whether
this reduction was a good thing to be (7)
done or not. However, I do not know under what wisdom the subsidy to
naphtha was discontinued. Overnight, it forced all naphtha-based
fertilizer plants in the country to shut down.1120 Our imports this
year are bound to shoot up. In fact, one of our public sector undertakings
is awaiting the Government’s confirmation for gas allocation or to shut down. There
is no doubt that the gas-based fertilizer plants are much more
effective. Sir, I would like to draw your attention to an interesting situation
that Oman and India have a joint venture and the joint venture was a win-win
situation. They were providing us cheap natural gas and we were1200
manufacturing the fertilizers there. Sir, curiously, Oman does not need
as much fertilizer as is manufactured there. We can easily bring back the
entire production here or we can increase the scale and size of the joint venture
because the cost of fertilizer made by the joint venture is still (8) cheaper than what we are importing
by paying huge amount.1260 So, I would like to draw the hon.
Minister’s attention towards this. He can comment on this also.
Sir,
I1280
would also like to draw the attention of the House to the issue of crop
insurance. Sometimes, crops are destroyed not only by natural calamities, but
also after using fertilizers. If the fertilizer is bad or if there is
some quality problem or some other thing, the farmer is left helpless even
after his best efforts. He cannot blame God or natural calamities, and he
suffers. As a consumer, he does not have any protection. Sir, another
dubious thing that is existing is the FCO mechanism. The same authority is checking
the quality and the same authority is disbursing the subsidy, thereby
concentrating the power in one hand. I think, that is not a desirable practice.
If there could be1400 (9)
two separate entities, it would be beneficial for everybody.
From environmental point of view also, six million tonnes of chemical
fertilizers are getting washed into our river Ganga. I have spoken about river
Ganga because it is very close to my heart. Our hon. Prime Minister
is very passionate about river Ganga. This is an area of concern, and I want to
bring this to the attention of the hon. Minister. He can suggest something, as
to how this can be avoided.
Sir,
now, I would like to move to my suggestions. I have mentioned that the
Government can somehow control the prices and the MRP formula because the MRP
formula is even growing faster than the inflation. Sir, I am giving just
radical thoughts; they may be practical or impractical.1534
(10)
