Govt ready to discuss all issues, PM tells parties

Even as the opposition parties are sharpening their knives for a frontal attack on the UPA government in the Budget session of Parliament beginning Feb 22, especially on the decision to hold talks with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the Government was ready to discuss all issues in Parliament.

“We are ready to discuss all issues in Parliament,” he told reporters after a meeting of leaders of political parties convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar ahead of the Budget session of Parliament. Dr. Singh was asked about BJP saying it will seek clarifications from the Government in Parliament on why it has decided on the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan when terrorism from across the border had not stopped.

The BJP has already made it known that it would also raise issues like price rise and internal security situation during the session.

The session would commence with President Pratibha Patil’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament and would conclude on May 7.

The General Budget for 2010-11 will be presented on February 26 and the Railway Budget 2010-11 on February 24.

In order to enable the Standing Committees to consider the demands for grants of various ministries and departments and prepare their reports, the Lok Sabha will adjourn on March 16 to reassemble on April 12. The Rajya Sabha will also begin its sitting from February 22.

Meanwhile, the Left parties have called upon the Union government to withdraw its decision to decontrol the price of fertilizers and a new nutrient-based subsidy scheme, arguing that this would have “disastrous repercussions” for the cultivating peasantry, especially small and marginal farmers. In a statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) pointed out that the move, coming in the wake of drought and floods in several parts of the country, would lead to a drastic reduction in acreage and output of major crops. The increase in the urea prices by 10 per cent would cause farmers more distress and the decontrol of the fertilizer prices would allow manufacturers to increase prices as they wished.

Charging the Centre with deciding to go in for the nutrient-based subsidy scheme without consulting peasant organisations and political parties, the CPI(M) said the argument that farmers were using excessive amounts of urea was baseless and aimed at placing the onus of soil degradation on the peasantry alone.

The All-India Forward Bloc apprehended large-scale hoarding, black-marketing and price rise, if fertilizer producers were given a free hand to fix the retail prices. It was reported that on average, 2,000 farmers were quitting agriculture daily, and farmer suicides were still continuing. “It shows all the schemes and packages have become paper tigers.”

The latest Economic Review by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council projected that agriculture would record a negative growth. The urea price increase and deregulation would force more farmers to quit agriculture and commit suicide, the party said.

Condemning the “anti-farmer move,” the All-India Kisan Sabha demanded that the government immediately withdraw the decision, or it would launch a protest.

The Congress, however, defended the decision. “What has emerged is a win-win situation,” it said. Its spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the urea prices were increased after eight years. Previously, there was no incentive for producing other kind of variants; now the producer had the incentive to increase the nutrient value.

The decision of the Union Cabinet to hike urea prices and decontrol prices of other fertilizers could well have set in motion the process for unleashing a mechanism for total decontrol of petrol prices and partial hike in diesel prices along with an imminent hike in the cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder and kerosene.

It is common knowledge that the LPG cylinders designated for household use often got diverted for automobile or commercial use resulting in safety hazards. The faulted policy of giving kerosene at subsidised prices under the PDS to all consumers regardless of their economic status has often resulted in wastage, leakage, adulteration and inefficiency.

- Asian Tribune -