Lok Sabha Question Hour: BJP, Opp members spar as ministers target state governments

Union ministers of Social Justice and Empowerment; Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare; and Youth Affairs and Sports attacked the Mamata Banerjee government for “not cooperating” with the Centre.

It started when BJP’s Bardhaman-Durgapur MP S S Ahluwalia sought to know why no one from the SC, OBC, EBC or safai karmachari communities in his constituency benefited from the PM-Daksh scheme. “It’s the non-cooperation of the West Bengal government that makes these zero-zero for my constituency in this chart. I am really sad to see this,” Ahluwalia said.

When Ahluwalia asked whether the central government would call a meeting of the district authorities to sort out the issue, MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik chose to slam the state government. “I would like to say that…the ministers (in West Bengal) would not pick calls even if we call them ten times. Their aides also are scared to share the contact details of the ministers,” she alleged.

When TMC member Aparupa Poddar protested, Bhoumik retorted: “I am also a Bengali. I can challenge you…I have tried to call the minister several times. The Prime Minister is keen that the entire country benefits from these schemes.”

Interestingly, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also joined the issue saying that even his Murshidabad district has not benefited from the scheme. “The ministers do not pick calls, they do not respond to the queries…it has become a habit for them,” Chowdhury said. Bhoumik alleged that their initiative to distribute appliances among the senior citizens in Murshidabad was also stalled by the state authorities.

When TMC’s Mahua Moitra asked the Agriculture ministry whether there is any “sustained programme on a pan-India basis under which farmers can feed their cows after 12 years (once the cow stops producing milk), MoS Sanjeev Balyan said it’s a state subject. “The West Bengal government can set up ‘gaushalas’ to shelter them. It’s not in our jurisdiction,” he said.

MoS for Youth Affairs and Sports Nisith Pramanik also slammed the Mamata government, saying “we have problems working in West Bengal” while replying to party colleague Sukanta Majumdar on the proposed Youth Policy. Pramanik said the ministry “was not able to recruit Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghathan (NYKS) and National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers in many parts of West Bengal” because of the “non-cooperation” from the state government.

The Minister repeated his “difficulties in working with the Mamata government” remark when TMC’s Prasun Banerjee raised the issue of poor functioning of Sports Authority of India (SAI) in West Bengal. He raised the issue of a Sports Training Centre in Jalpaiguri, which the state government had used as a quarantine centre during the pandemic. “After several requests and letters, the centre was vacated only last month. It was in a bad condition but the state government refused to support it,” Pramanik said.

To a question by DMK’s Kalanidhi Veeraswamy on raising the credit limit for the fishermen under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme as their “requirement” is different, MoS for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry L Murugan took a swipe at the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. “A political party in its manifesto promised to give Rs 1,000 to the mothers and sisters. But that promise has not yet been fulfilled,” he said, triggering noisy protests from the DMK members. Party leader T R Baalu accused the minister of playing politics rather than coming out with a proper reply to a bona fide question related to fishermen.

The treasury benches and the Opposition indulged in another heated argument over the issue of farm-loan waiver. Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala targeted the Opposition while responding to a supplementary question by Supriya Sule of the NCP, Speaker Om Birla intervened, stating that loans under the scheme were not written off by any government in the past.

Rupala said it was for the first time that the Prime Minister has extended the scheme to fishermen and dairy farmers as well, which earlier was meant only for agriculture.