Budget 2016: President Mukherjee for debate, discussion; not disruption of Parliament

President Pranab Mukherjee, in his address to a joint session of Parliament, called upon all MPs to discharge their responsibilities in a spirit of cooperation and mutual accommodation.

He said that India is prepared to take on terrorism. “Firm and effective steps will be taken to deal with any situation arising out of cross-border terrorism”, Pranab Mukherjee said.

President Mukherjee said, “Terrorism is a global threat and strong counter-terrorism measures are necessary worldwide to eradicate it completely”.

“It has many firsts to its credit like national coverage of post-harvest losses due to inundation and unseasonal rains, no capping on government subsidy, and use of technology for early and accurate settlement of claims”, he said, adding “assistance to farmers afflicted by natural calamity has been increased by 50 percent and eligibility norms have been relaxed”.

“Since the government assumed office, energy shortages have been reduced from 4 per cent to 2.3 per cent”, he said.

“Government has initiated several measures to ensure safety and security of women which include nationwide Emergency Response Systems, a Central Victim Compensation Fund, Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children, and Organized Crime Investigative Agency and an Integrated Emergency Response Management System for women’s safety on the railways”, he said.

“Dedication of the Afghanistan Parliament to its people by Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi was our contribution to Afghanistan’s pursuit of peace and prosperity”, the President said.

The Govt.is placed in making this goal possible through financial inclusion and social security.

“The government introduced dynamic and comprehensive reforms in Coal Sector and conducted transparent auction/ allocation of over 70 coal blocks”, President Mukherjee said.

“Setting up world-class infrastructure for electronics manufacturing across the country remains a priority for my government”, he said.

The Budget Session of Parliament is commencing today and is expected to have a stormy start over a host of issues, including the JNU row, Rohith Vemula suicide case and Pathankot terror attack.

Development philosophy is captured in “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”.

Expressing confidence that the deliberations of the Parliamentarians will live upto the task reposed by the citizens, the President said that “Going forth, we will all be partners in progress and development of our great country”.

He highlighted various social security schemes of the government and the steps taken by it to improve functioning of state-owned banks. “Under the programme, out of over 210 million accounts opened, 150 million accounts are operational with an aggregate deposit of over Rs32,000 crore”, he said. We reached out to the world, both on land and sea. “The highest number of new cooking gas connections to9 the rural poor were distributed in 2015”, he said. “World is also paying attention to the Budget session due to India’s position in the global economy today”, he said.

The government, he said, has also launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna, New Urea Policy and several steps were being take to usher in “second green revolution’ for the eastern states”.