New Delhi: Members from both the ruling
alliance and the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Tuesday asked the
government to give greater focus on agriculture sector and
highlighted the need for reaching the findings of agriculture
research to the end users.
Resuming the discussion on general budget, Vijay Raghavan
(CPI-M) demanded an increase in the budget allocation for the
farming sector and expressed concern over decline in
expenditure on rural economy and subsidies.
He said the approach of the budget was against the
interest of common man.
Mohsina Kidwai (Congress) regretted that there was no
special arrangement to reach the findings of agriculture
research to the farmers. Maintaining that Krishi Vikas Kendra,
the only link between farmers and agriculture research, was
short of staff and scientists, she urged Agriculture Minister
Sharad Pawar to pay attention to this.
She underlined the need to evolve a mechanism to bring
transparency and check corruption in the Public Distribution
System.
Referring to complaints of corruption in NREGA, she said
there was need for an independent monitoring system for
central government schemes being carried out in Panchayats.
She said there are regular complaints of corruption in
the job guarantee scheme and perhaps only 25 per cent of the
money reaches intended beneficiaries.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 16:06