The Rajya Sabha has concluded the first part of the Budget Session today with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replying to the discussion on the Union Budget 2021-22. The House is scheduled to re-assemble on 8th of March 2021.<br />'' <br />''The Finance Minister said, the government is looking at medium and long term sustainable growth that will keep India in that kind of growth trajectory which will maintain the country as one of those fastest growing economies in the world. Criticizing the opposition for creating a false narrative around the Budget being pro-rich, she said the government has provided free food grains, gas and houses for the poor. <br />''<br />''She said the Budget is the instrument for making India an Atmanirbhar Bharat at a time when economies across the globe had suffered due to the COVID pandemic. She said an attempt was made to provide a strong stimulus which can bring about a multiplier effect. She said instead of finding quick short term solutions even as we provide short term quick relief for those people who desperately need it. <br />''<br />''She said that despite government schemes and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting the lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies. Listing out the number measures undertaken by the government for the poor, the Finance Minister said the houses completed under PM Awas Yojana stood at more than 1.67 crore, while households, which have been electrified under Saubhagya scheme since October 2017 are more than 2.67 crore.<br />'' <br />''Participating in the debate, Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress alleged that the budget helped the rich capitalists. His party colleague Deepender Singh Hooda said the budgetary allocation was reduced for the physically challenged, scientific research and the pension for the jawans.<br />'' <br />''Binoy Biswam of the CPI alleged that in the name of 'atmanirbhar', the budget is helping the capitalists of the country. Ashok Siddharth of the BSP said there is nothing in this budget for the common man.<br />'' <br />''Intervening in the discussion, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur slammed opposition parties asking them not to use farmers for their political gains. He asserted that the three new farm laws will help in doubling the income of the farming community. The Minister challenged the opposition to show him if it is written anywhere in the farm laws that the regime of Mandis and MSP will come to an end due to the legislation. He asserted that the law has been brought to double the income of farmers and the government is committed to that. <br />'' <br />''Defending the budget, BJP leader Anurag Thakur slammed opposition parties, asking them not to use farmers for their political gains and asserted that the three new farm laws will help in doubling income of the farming community.<br />'' <br />''Earlier, amid the debate, Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress announced his resignation from the Rajya Sabha saying he felt suffocated in the House as he is unable to do anything for the violence going on in his home state of West Bengal. Responding to this Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was in the Chair said, there is a due process for resigning from the House and asked Trivedi to submit his resignation in writing to the Rajya Sabha Chairman.<br />'' <br />''Earlier, replying to supplementary questions, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India's exports of the COVID-19 vaccine stood at around Rs 338 crore till the 8th of February.<br />'' <br />''Some members also raised matters of public importance during Zero Hour. Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha of the RJD demanded a high-level inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the COVID-19 tests in Bihar. Rajmani Patel of the Congress demanded that the Buddhist stupas at Deorkothar in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh be declared an archaeological site of national importance, B Lingaiah Yadav of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) raised the issue of the industrial corridor in the southern state. <br />''<br />''<br />''Muzibulla Khan of the Biju Janata Dal pitched for the constitution of a flying squad to verify the construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission. K. Ravindra Kumar of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) wanted the Krishna River Management Board be kept in Vijayawada and not shifted to Visakhapatnam and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya of the CPI-M opposed the clubbing of nine institutes for the differently-abled into four clusters. Ashok Sidddharth of the Bahujan Samaj Party demanded the Centre footing 100 per cent of the post-matric scholarship for the members of the Scheduled Caste communities. <br />''<br />''<br />''Shamsher Singh Dullo of the Congress raised the issue of the Centre not releasing its full share of education grants for SC students to states like Punjab. Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot countered this, saying utilisation certificates were not given by the state and there were other irregularities as well.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">Chaudhary Sukhram Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party demanded that the government should take action against social media platform Twitter for blocking his account.</span><br />

<span style="color: #222222;">The Rajya Sabha has taken up discussion on the Union Budget 2021-22 today. Participating in the discussion, Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP said the economists have hailed the budget as a reformist budget. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ensured that a timely lockdown was enforced in the country to prevent loss of lives due to COVID-19. He said it was a budget dedicated to welfare of the poor and boost reforms.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Earlier, initiating the discussion, Kapil Sibal of  the Congress questioned whether the country was moving towards self reliance as the Finance Minister had claimed. S R Balasubramaniyan of the AIADMK asked the government to reconsider the agriculture Cess on fuel. Amar Patnaik of the BJD, Anthiyur P Selvarasu of the DMK, K R Suresh Reddy of the TRS and Subhash Chandra Bose Pilli of YSRCP also participated in the discussion, which remained inconclusive.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Later, the House adopted the Major Port Authority Bill, 2020 in a division of voting. It seeks to provide autonomy to India's 12 major ports and improve their efficiency and competitiveness besides creation of a Board for each major port. Moving the Bill for consideration, Minister for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya said that this Bill has been brought to make important changes in the ease of doing business in the port sector, and to encourage healthy competition between major ports and private ports. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Initiating discussion on the Bill, Shaktisinh Gohil of Congress said it was an attempt by the government to privatise the ports. Several members including Suresh Prabhu of BJP, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray of the Trinamool Congress, Subhash Chandra Singh of Biju Janata Dal, Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party, P. Wilson of DMK, Elamaram Kareem of CPI, Banda Prakash of the TRS, Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD, Dr. Fauzia Khan of NCP, K Ravindra Kumar of Telugu Desam Party, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena, Binoy Viswam of CPI, Narain Dass Gupta of Aam Aadmi Party, Ramji of BSP, Thambidurai of AIADMK, Jugalsinh Lokhandwala of BJP, Ramchandra Prasad of JD-U and G K Vasan of TMC-M participated in the discussion.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Replying to a discussion on the Bill, Minister for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya said that the Bill was not aimed at putting the ports in private hands. He said the government has included provisions in the bill to ensure greater autonomy to the ports. After the reply, the Minister moved the Bill for passage. However, members of the opposition demanded a division. 84 Members voted in favour of the Bill while 44 members voted against it.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Members raised several issues during the Zero Hour. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of BJP raised the issue of local consulting agencies losing out on business due to existing norms. He said the government should adopt a policy wherein Indian consulting firms are given importance. N R Elango of DMK expressed concern on dilution of reservation in educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. Subhash Chandra Bose Pilli of YSRCP raised the issue of Pending payment to Andhra Pradesh Civil Services Corporation. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress, raised the issue of Gujarat fishermen lodged in Pakistan jails. Prasanna Acharya of BJD said that a law must be framed for orphan children to save them from exploitation. Anil Baluni of BJP said the Centre should devise a mechanism to study glacier burst in light of the recent accident in Uttarakhand. Jyotiraditya Scindia of BJP said States should be asked to furnish data of Child marriages. He said that education of the girl child was impacted due to COVID-19.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">During the Question Hour, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, responding to a question about opening up air routes to over 80 per cent, said the decision to raise the frequency of commercial flights beyond 80 per cent depends on the behaviour of the virus and the commercial decisions are to be taken by the air carriers.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In reply to a question, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said that a package of Rs 27 lakh crore has been given under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat to help generate employment in the rural sector. He said, there are 40 crore unorganised labour and 10 crore organised labour in the country.</span><br />''  

<span style="color: #222222;">The Rajya Sabha today resumed the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the Presidential Address. While opposition party members continued demanding the repeal of the farm laws, the BJP defended the new laws saying it is committed to increasing the income of farmers.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Participating in the discussion, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, the government is committed to the welfare of the farmers and will help increase their income. He said the government will provide Rs one lakh crore additional income to farmers that will be generated by converting waste into energy. The minister said the heap of waste at Ghazipur will be cleaned soon to create energy. Ghazipur at the Delhi-UP border is witnessing protests by farmers from Uttar Pradesh against the three farm laws.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">   </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Pradhan said the government has started the Gobar Dhan scheme, whereby cow dung, agriculture waste, city waste, forest waste and the carbon in biomass will be converted into energy.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In a few days, the heap of waste at Ghazipur will be cleaned up, he said, adding that the energy made from such waste would help provide additional income to the farmers. He said, the income of the farmers will double from that. The Minister said the government has come up with a scheme to procure ethanol worth Rs 20,000 crore which will help increase the farmers' income.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Pradhan attacked the Congress for not bringing a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops despite being in power for long. He said yet the opposition party is questioning the government on the issue. He claimed that the Narendra Modi government after coming to power in 2014 has substantially increased procurement of food grains at higher MSP. He recalled that during 2013-14, a total of Rs 97,110 crore was given as MSP to farmers, whereas in 2020-21 the government has given Rs 2.60 lakh crore.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">According to Mr Pradhan, MSP payment made to paddy growers under the Modi government has increased to Rs 1.72 lakh crore this year, from Rs 63,000 crore during the previous regime in 2013-14, he said.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Referring to initiatives taken to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income, the Minister said the effort to increase ethanol blending, compressed biogas programmes among others will ensure additional income to farmers. He said the Opposition Congress cannot appreciate such government efforts as it has never done except for hailing its dynasty.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Pradhan said those born with a golden spoon cannot digest when a tea-seller, son of a woman cleaning utensils in other houses for livelihood, takes reins of the government and that is why they talk against the government.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister said this government is for all sections of society and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a leader who is decisive and implements programmes that have been promised.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Defending the three new farm laws in Rajya Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia of the BJP said the government has taken a host of steps in the last six years to increase their income. He questioned the opposition for changing their stance on agricultural market reforms. He said the NDA government has been successful in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and also turning the crisis into an opportunity.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Scindia attacked the Congress for changing its stand on the three legislations, saying that the Opposition party has favoured similar laws in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. He said NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who was the Agriculture Minister in the erstwhile UPA government had written to all Chief Ministers for reforms in farm trade and the need for private sector participation in the agriculture sector.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Scindia said opposition parties will have to change their habit of going back on their words and wondered for how long they would continue to harm the interests of the country. He also condemned the disrespect to the national flag and violence at Red Fort during the farmers' tractor rally.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Scindia said the opposition has insulted the President, the country and the democracy by boycotting the President's address to both the Houses of Parliament on January 29. He hailed the efforts of the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in checking the spread of the Coronavirus when there were grim predictions of 80 crore infections and 20 lakh deaths.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Swapan Dasgupta (Nominated) stressed on the need for upgradation in the agriculture sector.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Earlier, opposition parties hit out at the government for its handling of the farmers protest against three farm laws.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Manoj Kumar Jha of the RJD pleaded with the government to understand the pain of the farmers.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Digvijaya Singh of the Congress lashed out at the BJP government, saying right from demonetisation to the CAA were blunders that hit the people hard.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Quoting former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said demonetisation was a monumental mismanagement, organised loot and legalised blunder.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr. Singh said the void between the Modi government's promises and implementation was big and it could not win the hearts of people, whether the poor, the farmers or the labourers. The senior Congress leader also accused the government of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic and fuelling corruption.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Former Prime Minister and JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda called farmers the backbone of the country and said miscreants and anti-social elements were behind the events of Republic Day and all political parties have condemned their actions and agree that they need to be punished. But the farmers' issue should not be mixed with it, he said adding that the issue should be dealt with amicably.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Deepinder Singh Hooda of the Congress hit out at the government saying it should show a big heart and accept the demands of farmers by repealing the farm laws. He said the government should not question the patriotism of farmers as they are the ones who have made the country self-sufficient in food by feeding 135 crore people.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Hooda said there has not been a single word of condolence from the government yet on 194 farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing agitation. He also tabled the list of names of all 194 farmers who lost their lives during the agitation.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress pressed the government to repeal the three controversial farm laws and said he drafted a bill for the purpose of repealing them. He also demanded a proper inquiry into the death of a farmer during the tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Trinamool Congress MP said the farm laws were not sent to a select committee for scrutiny and accused the government of failing the sanctity of Parliament.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party said his party would continue to support the farmers protesting against three farm laws.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya of the CPI (M) asked the government to withdraw the three contentious farm laws and hold talks with the agitating farmers.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">N R Elango of the DMK asked the government to withdraw the three farm laws.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Banda Prakash of the TRS asked the government to complete the projects promised to Telangana during the reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) MP M V Shreyams Kumar attacked the government over its handling of the ongoing farmer agitation.</span><br />''