New Delhi: Six Rajya Sabha members on Thursday bid
farewell to the House with an appeal to the government to
urgently address the burning issues of corruption, inflation
and unemployment.
The members, whose term was completed today included
Brinda Karat and Md Amin (both CPI-M), Surendra Motilal Patel
and Praveen Naik (both BJP), Abani Roy (RSP) and Swapan Sadhan
Bose (Trinamool Congress).
Ahmed Patel (Congress) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) have
been re-elected.
Extending good wishes to the retiring members, Chairman
Hamid Ansari said they made valuable contribution to the
House.
"In the current situation, attempts are underway how to
finish the democratic system in our country," Roy said urging
the Prime Minister to take steps to check such trends as well
as corruption.
"Set right our democratic system and keep corruption at
bay so that no one can make comments against MPs or
Parliament," he said.
Roy appealed to the Prime Minister, who was present in the
House to take the country forward by discharging his
responsibilities by taking everybody along.
"People are suffering from inflation and unemployment," he
said.
Karat chose the occasion to urge the government to soon
introduce in the Lok Sabha the Women Reservation Bill
providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and
state assemblies so that a law could be enacted.
Thanking the male members of Rajya Sabha for the passage
of the bill in the Upper House, Karat said, "There should not
be any further delay in bringing that bill to Lok Sabha."
Expressing concern over social and economic inequalities,
she said unless these disparities were removed, political
democracy would be in peril.
Emphasizing the role of education in country`s
development, Bose said schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are
too bureaucratic.
He said while literacy has gone up, children`s reading and
mathematical abilities have declined and demanded Special
Education Zones on the lines of Special Economic Zones in the
country.
Md Amin bid emotional farewell to the House by reciting
Urdu couplets.
Raising issues of corruption and price rise, the CPI-M
member said there was a need to adopt socialism to resolve
these problems.
PTI
