AAP member Sandeep Kumar Pathak on Friday accused the Center of creating an “artificial crisis” in Punjab by disrupting the ecosystem of the agrarian state, with farmers, ahtias (commission agents) and rice mills – all facing losses.
Speaking at zero time in the Rajya Sabha on the need to address the problems of paddy mills in Punjab, Pathak questioned whether the procurement and storage process was standardized according to the crop season and if so, why it was not followed.
“An artificial crisis has been created in Punjab in which farmers, farmers and rice mills face losses,” he said.
As per the process, the farmers sell their produce in the local market, from where the paddy is purchased by the mills. After dehusking, it is sold to the warehouses of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which then distributes it to state governments.
This time, FCI’s godown has not been cleared for new purchases during paddy procurement. Besides, paddy mills had more than 200,000 tonnes of last season’s rice in stock, which was not picked up.
“When you don’t have space to store in godowns (FCI) and with rice millers, procurement will be affected,” the AAP leader said, adding that farmers have to queue up to sell their produce in mandis.
Many have sold their crops at low prices due to fear of loss. This also delayed the next crop for farmers, affecting the nation’s economy.
Moreover, earlier Aadtia was getting 2.5 percent commission, now it is fixed at 45,000 rupees. Paddy mills have also been affected as they started making profit by selling the by-products from the dehusking process of rice.
“They tried to disrupt the ecosystem of an agrarian state. The Punjab government wrote seven letters in the last six months but got no response,” he said.
Pramod Tiwari of the Congress expressed his concern saying that drug addiction among the youth has adversely affected the national health and social development.
Tiwari said that 20 percent of people in the age group of 20 to 75 years in this country are addicted to some kind of drug.
Furthermore, from 2014 to 2023, there was a nearly 100 percent increase in seizures by the Drug Enforcement Bureau. Many people have died due to drugs, most of whom are in the age group of 30 to 45 years.
Tiwari said that the illegal import of drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan has harmed the national security.
However, whenever drugs are seized, the name of Mundra port, which is being operated by the Adani group, comes out, he alleged.
‘This port has become notorious for drug trafficking,’ he said. This is the same port where drugs worth 21 thousand crores were seized.
He added, “Now Gujarat has become a drug hub and all the drugs are coming from Mundra port” and alleged that the government did not take any action as the port was owned by Adani.
Because of this, there was some uproar from the Treasury Bench and Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was presiding over the House, asked to pay attention to the matter.
Koseke Mani of KC (Maoist) expressed concern over the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases and said that it has become a public health crisis in the country.
“These diseases include diabetes, heart disease, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases (which are now responsible for more than 60 percent of deaths in India, according to the World Health Organization. In 1990, it was around 38 percent…These diseases take a heavy toll on our population, especially 30 And it’s affecting people in their 40s,” he said.
Stating that the current efforts of the government are insufficient, he said that initiatives should be taken to promote healthy living and good health infrastructure.
DMK’s Tiruchi N Shiva raised the issue of severe and widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Fengal in Tamil Nadu in which many houses and cattle have been destroyed.
“The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has written to the Prime Minister to release Rs 2,000 crore for interim relief,” he said, urging the government to be kind.
BJD’s Sasmeet Patra raised the issue of high pendency of judicial cases. Citing national judicial statistics, Patra said more than 4.5 crore cases are pending in various courts in India due to insufficient judicial strength, judicial vacancies and procedural delays.
He suggested to implement the national case policy which has been under consideration since 2010.
Trinamool Congress member Saket Gokhale raised the issue of toxic work culture in the private sector.
“That is why there is a need for a labor law to regulate it. “Now we don’t have a law to regulate this sector,” he said.
RJD’s AD Singh said the government should speed up the process of granting visas to experts and highly productive Chinese professionals. This will help the private sector that employs them.
BJP’s Kalpana Saini asked for traditional sports in schools and Baburam Nishad of the same party asked for trains between Kanpur Central and Somnath.