Lok Sabha passes Bill allowing Centre to draw from Consolidated Fund for 2024-25

He first put all cut motions moved by members before the House and they were rejected by a voice vote.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman then moved “for leave to introduce a Bill to authorise payment and appropriation of certain sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2024-25”.

PM Narendra Modi arrived in the House just before passage of the Bill, which happened after the LS held discussions on demands for grants for some ministries before the guillotine.

The passage of the Finance Bill, which will mark the passage of the Union Budget, is slotted for Tuesday, when Sitharaman will move it in the Lok Sabha.

Before the passage of the Bill, Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh praised the Modi government, asserting that states were offered funds without discrimination.

“In West Bengal, as per the Blue Revolution Project (relating to fisheries), projects worth `41.44 crore have been approved. And `27.2 crore, the contribution of the Centre, has been released to Bengal. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, which began in 2020, was not accepted by the Bengal government till 2022. Now they have realised its importance. Whatever is the due as per Bengal, the Centre will fulfil. Respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi-ji does not discriminate against any state,” Singh said.

Regarding Kerala, he said projects worth `1,355 crore have been approved in the last decade.

The state where the highest number of schemes under PM Matsya Sampada Yojana have been accepted is Andhra Pradesh, he said. According to the minister, projects worth `1,853 crore have been accepted for the northeastern states. He asserted that `1,482 crore have been allocated for Maharashtra.

“Sometimes, our fishermen enter Sri Lankan territory and vice versa. There is a joint working group of India and Sri Lanka that discusses all this. ISRO has put in place a transponder for the benefit of the fishermen. Through this, fishermen can communicate with family or coastguards, and get an alert if they are about to cross India’s maritime boundary. This facility has already been installed in close to 1 lakh vehicles,” the Singh said.

He said India was second in the world in fishery production and the first in dairy production.