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Tuesday,
November 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Walkout in LS over textbooks issue State funding of poll to be ‘decided’ soon Sonia, Mulayam meet at dinner Sharad: talks on for labour reforms Demand for new agriculture policy
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT User-operated gates at unmanned
level crossings Conference on technical education
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Walkout in LS over textbooks issue New Delhi, November 26 The House saw interruptions, attacks and counter-attacks from both the ruling side and Opposition benches prompting Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi to observe that the discussions held yesterday to maintain discipline and decorum in the House appeared to have had no impact. Responding to the submissions made by members during zero hour, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan justified the deletions and said only portions which hurt the feelings of certain communities or leaders had been deleted. Mr Mahajan said the government had the authority to delete controversial portions from the school textbooks. History was controversial and there were no final views on many points like the place from where the Aryans had come to India, he said. “We have not tampered with the books...we have not re-written the books... we have just deleted certain objectionable portions to restore the glory of Guru Teg Bahadur and the Jat community. There is no question of withdrawal of the circular,” Mr Mahajan told the House. Protesting the deletion of certain portions of textbooks, CPM members alleged this was done at the behest of the Sangh Parivar and there was no difference between the Taliban and them. Responding to an impromptu discussion during zero hour, Mr Mahajan said the Opposition had not given a single proof to justify their allegation. He wanted to know from the Opposition whether schoolchildren should be taught that Guru Teg Bahadur was a “murderer and rapist” and that the Jat community which had founded the state of Bharatpur was a “plunderer”. Dissatisfied with the government’s response, the Congress, the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and RJD members angrily walked out of the House. Raising the issue, CPM member Suresh Kurup alleged, “The Taliban and Sangh Parivar are the two sides of a coin,” and demanded immediate withdrawal of the circular. Members from the Congress, the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the RJD instantly got up in his support. Defending the circular issued by the National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT), BJP member Sahib Singh Verma said it had done a commendable job by removing the controversial portions. It was not proper to impart “wrong teaching” to the children, he said. The House witnessed an uproar when Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi left the House when CPM member Basudeb Acharia rose to state his point of view on the issue. Members demanded that Mr Joshi be called back to the House. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) said the BJP was trying to highlight their achievements through school textbooks. Alleging that the BJP was trying to distort history, he said the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues while the BJP demolished the Babri Masjid. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (SJP) said history was not always correct, and the Education Ministry could correct any mistake. However, no book had been banned as such, he pointed out. He said his understanding was that changes were made in tune with the recommendations of the S B Chavan report. |
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State funding of poll to be ‘decided’ soon New Delhi, November 26 Replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, Law, Justice and Company Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said a group headed by Home Minister L. K. Advani was looking into various recommendations, including the Inderjit Gupta report, for arriving at a final decision on the matter. Stating that the decision on the issue could not have a time limit, the minister said the process was in an “advanced stage” and people would hear about it soon. Mr Jaitley was also non-committal when asked by Dr Karan Singh of the Congress whether a decision could be expected before the coming assembly elections, which are due in the next three-four months or before the general election which could take place in the next three years. The Inderjit Gupta report had suggested funding in the form of kind rather than cash and among its recommendations was allocation of Rs 600 crore each both by the Centre and collectively by the state governments for funding elections. However, those who have agreed to the policy of state funding have not agreed on the issue of their self-contribution, Mr Jaitley said in an apparent reference to some of the state governments. He said the report of the Congress committee headed by Dr Manmohan Singh had called for transparency in the method of funding
elections. |
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Sonia, Mulayam meet at dinner New Delhi, November 26 Also present at the dinner were former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Congress Deputy Leader Shivraj Patil, veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu, West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya, Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann, G M Banatwala (Muslim League), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RLD), Haribhau Mahale JD (S), and Left leaders including Amarroy Pradhan and Biman Bose . It was the first meeting of Ms Gandhi with Mr Yadav and Mr Pawar, who have not enjoyed the best of equations with her. The coming together of the various Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha is significant as the previous attempts to achieve such unity had failed. |
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Sharad: talks on for labour reforms New Delhi, November 26 Answering during the question hour in the Lok Sabha, Mr Yadav admitted that several trade union organisations had opposed the amendments to the Industrial Act, 1947 and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. The minister informed the House that the government’s intention was to amend the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947, while a review of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 was already announced during the budget presentation. Amendments to other laws were under various stages of examination, Mr Yadav pointed out adding that the government had appointed a group of ministers on Labour Reforms which had been examining this issue.
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Demand for new agriculture policy New Delhi, November 26 Participating in a resumed discussion on problems faced by farmers, the Samajwadi Party supremo, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said the government had neglected the farm sector and farmers were facing untold miseries and hardships due to faulty policies. The government also faced some embarrassing moments when members of two NDA allies, Mr Raghunath Jha of the Samata Party and Mr Prasanna Acharya of the Biju Janata Dal, took exception to the absence of the Minister for Food, Mr Shanta Kumar, when the House took up the discussion. Ms Preneet Kaur, a Congress member from Punjab, said the condition of farmers, mainly in Punjab, had worsened as they were not being given remunerative prices, even the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government, despite steep rise in the cost of production of agricultural commodities. In the parliamentary constituency of Patiala, she said, the flood in Ghaggar every year caused havoc and described it as a national disaster. She urged the Centre to find a solution to the problem as it was an inter-state matter. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, November 26 He said the government was providing assistance to the state governments for the development of agriculture, including horticulture crops, under the centrally sponsored scheme on macro-management in agriculture — supplementation/complementation of state’s efforts through work plans. He said under this scheme, the state governments had the option to prioritise their programmes according to their needs. The minister said an outlay of Rs 1,800 lakh had been earmarked for Himachal Pradesh during 2001-02 under this scheme. Of this, Rs 578 lakh was for development of horticulture in the state. Besides, assistance of Rs 14 lakh had been released to Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, under the Central Sector Scheme on Human Resource Development in Horticulture. Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation Ananth Kumar told the Rajya Sabha that the Punjab Government had shown interest in the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana proposed by the government. The scheme, scheduled to be launched this year, aims at providing shelters or upgrading the existing shelters for people living below the poverty line in urban slums. He said the centrally sponsored scheme applied to all states/UTs, including Punjab. |
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User-operated gates at unmanned level crossings New Delhi, November 26 This was announced by Minister for Railways Nitish Kumar during the inspection of a similar device at Gari Harsaru in Gurgaon district of Haryana. The minister said the gates would be initially installed at different locations on an experimental basis. He said such gates cost about Rs 1.25 lakh each. On the other hand, the installation of manned level crossing, cost Rs 10 lakh. Sources in the Northern Railway said the new device had been developed by the South-Eastern Railway and had proved successful. It was
easy to install and light to operate. |
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Conference on technical education New Delhi, November 26 Mr Kaw urged the states to prepare their own vision documents to facilitate a better synergy between the Central and state programmes. |
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