Hon.
Chairman Sir, I thank you for giving me
this opportunity to raise a very important issue. The issue relates to cancer
patients. The recent report of the Indian Council for Medical Research
shows that the number of Indians suffering from cancer is projected to increase
to 30 million in 2025. It was 27 million in 2021. The Health Minister has
already said that 7.5 per cent of global cancer burden is shared by India. So,
every thirteenth cancer patient in the world is an Indian. This is a
very gross100 situation and
this also shows that cancer treatment facilities are a major issue
affecting the nation. Every year,120
1.5 million new cases are diagnosed. Cancer centres are mostly in cities and
people coming from villages have to travel140
far and wide to see that the patient gets cancer treatment. That is also
expensive. That jeopardizes their livelihood because160 they have to see that continuity of
treatment is there for the patient. I would request the Government that
there should be more investment in the infrastructure for cancer
patients. There should be radiotherapy units, radiation therapy
units and200 chemotherapy
units so that they can access these facilities. Sir, the 325th Report of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests
and Climate Change also pointed out the fact that there should be
availability of240 adequate
facilities in local regions so that people do not suffer by not getting the
cancer treatment and care. There is another aspect which needs to be
looked into by the Ministry of Health and there should be affordable and280 equitable care for cancer patients. It
is a traumatic situation emotionally as well as financially when we talk
about cancer.300 Sir, the
Report also pointed out that six crore people are pushed below the poverty line
because of incurring this320
cost. I would urge the Government to take this issue seriously.
Hon.
Chairman, Sir, Indian Railways are the
lifeline of the people of this country. Especially, the poor and downtrodden
people depend on railways for their travel. The railways had360 withdrawn train services and cancelled
the fare concession for senior citizens and differently abled persons. Indian
Railways provide concession in ticket fare for 53 categories of people like
senior citizens, differently abled persons, medal winning sports personalities,
cancer patients400 and
journalists. Women above 58 years of age and men above 60 years of age were
given 50 per420 cent and 40
per cent concession respectively. Freedom fighters were honoured and
were given 100 per cent concession. Full restoration of train services is yet
to happen even after two years since the Government imposed lockdown. To add
more woes, the Government is running 70 per cent of trains as special trains
with higher fares. Poor passengers have to spend480 more money for their travel by train even for a short
distance.
Hon.
Chairman Sir, until and unless some
people's500 character
improves, this tendency of 'State' within State may backfire. Therefore, there
should be unity of command rather than multiplicity of commands, and
unity of command is that it should come under the Government. It was not
only the Medical Council of India; the Pharmacy Council of Haryana
is also going on like this, as also the Dental Councils and560 other Councils. That means, this independence
should be for the Government, not under the Government. Like soldiers, they
should remain disciplined under the Government. I put it this way. As far as
the Standing Committee is concerned, the hon. Speaker600 of Lok Sabha, and the hon.
Chairman of Rajya Sabha had referred it to the Standing Committee and they
made quite good recommendations to make it more user-friendly, and,
those recommendations have been agreed to by the Minister. Still, rules640 have to be framed. In the rules,
further relaxation can be given. As far as the selections in Committees
and Boards are concerned, certainly, men of integrity and men of professional
integrity should be appointed to those posts. Otherwise, it will become another
futile exercise. So, that aspect should be taken care of.
Sir,
I would like to put forward700
certain important points for kind consideration of our learned Minister. I
propose these points to be incorporated for effective implementation720 of this Bill. Sir, as we know,
the World Anti-Doping Agency was formed in 1990 under the International Olympic
Committee. Then, the World Anti-Doping Agency considered that there should
be a doping agency in each and every country, and, accordingly, National
Anti-Doping Agency was formed in November, 2009 and it was registered as a
society under the Societies Registration Act. After that, it was felt
that since there was no legislation, certain decisions taken by this agency
could be taken to court by some of the parties. So, there was a need for
legislation, and, accordingly,800
it was proposed by the Standing Committee in 2020, and, thereafter, it
has been converted into a statutory body. Sir, there are certain drawbacks of
this Act. Firstly, there is a provision of the post of Director General840 of National Anti-Doping Agency but his qualifications
are not yet mentioned in the Bill. Secondly, it has been
mentioned categorically in the Bill that the Government may
remove the Director General at any point of time from the office 'on such
grounds' but those 'grounds' have not been mentioned in this Bill.
Thirdly, it has been mentioned that the term900 for Director General would be three
years but it might be extended subject to the decision taken by the Government
of India. There is a clear-cut meaning that the Director General will be bound
to work as per the directives of the Government of India and he will be
unable to work independently.
Sir,
there is a provision of National960
Board in this Bill, and, within the National Board, there is a provision of Disciplinary
Panel. If there is a980
case of doping, this Disciplinary Panel can take the decision so far as
punishment is concerned. There is also a1000
provision for the Appeal Panel. If an athlete feels that injustice has been
done to him, he can go to the Appeal Panel. Unfortunately, it has been
mentioned that the Board can remove the members of this panel at any
point of time and even they might not be given any chance of being heard. Here
lies the question of the independence of the authority. Sir, as far as
qualifications of its members are concerned, the World Anti-Doping Agency1080 has categorically mentioned that there
should be specific guidelines for the qualification but this aspect is
missing in the existing Bill. In Clause 11 of this Bill, it is
mentioned that the Disciplinary Panel will consist of one Chairperson and1120 four Vice-Chairpersons and it has been
mentioned that in the absence of the Chairperson, one Vice-Chairperson will
take the lead role. But it has not been mentioned who will be
this 'one Vice-chairperson' out of the four. There are certain Standing Committee
recommendations. The first one is that selection and appointment mechanism
should be clear and transparent. Secondly, there should be clear cut discrimination
between major and minor athletes and physically challenged athletes.
Specific rules are needed regarding exemptions.1200
There is much confusion and even an athlete does not know whether he can
take a simple paracetamol or not. So, there should be adequate awareness
as well. Penalty of an athlete should be proportionate to the amount of
the offence done by that athlete. After the period of his punishment, he
should be once again entitled to participate in1260 each and every competition so
far as medals and other things are concerned because we know that the career
of1280 any athlete is very
short.
Sir,
my next point is regarding the dope testing laboratory. It was very unfortunate
to note that the only laboratory in India was banned for nearly one year. There
are 29 accredited laboratories in the world while Asia is having
six laboratories. Our suggestion is that each State should have one laboratory.
Sir, I sincerely endorse the statement made by my colleague that we
should give our best possible effort to have one unit in our country
instead of having it in Switzerland. There is another confusion
regarding 'athlete support personnel'. Who are the persons to be considered as
'athlete support personnel'? It needs to be mentioned clearly in the
Bill. My humble submission1400
is that we should look into it so that these bodies and these organisations
can act neutrally and independently and they are not directly governed
by the Government of India. I strongly contradict the statement made by my
colleague from1440 BJP who
said that the Medical Council of India was corrupt and that is why
the National Medical Council was formed. I can cite several examples
where National Medical Council is being accused of so many irregularities.
Sir,
I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on the National
Anti-Doping Bill, 2022. As we are all aware, doping remains a very severe
problem with India ranking third worldwide, according to the latest report
released in 2022 with 152 cases across different sports. Such incidents affect
the morale of the sportspersons and also become a matter of national embarrassment.
Therefore, I welcome the National Anti-Doping Bill which seeks to rectify this
problem. It is an important Bill, considering the increase in India's
participation in sports inspired by our record Olympics tally last year. 1580
