The Lok Satta Party’s State Working Committee is meeting here on January 20 and 21 to discuss the latest political situation in the State.
Party General Secretary V. Laxman Balaji said in a media statement that the committee would also discuss the Srikrishna Committee report, the Krishna water verdict, BC reservations and farmers’ problems.
The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government immediately scrap the Tenancy Act of 1956 and enact a new law that takes care of the interests of both tenants and farmers.
Addressing media, party leaders G. Rajareddy, P, Bhaskara Rao and V, Vijayender Reddy pointed out that the 1956 Act was full of impractical provisions. Under the Act, a farmer who wants to sell his land should necessarily sell it to the tenant and that too at a rate not exceeding five times the lease amount. As a result, farmers by and large have chosen not to register their leases. There has been no change in the situation despite two subsequent amendments to the Act.
The Lok Satta leaders said that lakhs of tenants could not avail themselves of bank loans, subsidized seeds and other inputs, and crop insurance since their leases are not unregistered. Deprived of bank credit, the tenants, most of them belonging to weaker sections, borrow funds at exorbitant rates from money lenders. They suffer body blows when a natural calamity like drought or cyclone hits them.
The Lok Satta leaders said that the Government move to enact a law providing for issuance of loan eligibility cards to tenants would not serve the purpose unless the old Act is scrapped. They wanted the Government to enact a new tenancy law under which the farmer is assured of his title to land and the tenant is assured of lease for a certain specified period. Tenants should be issued cards only after the passage of the new law.
Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today called for a comprehensive and radical restructuring of healthcare delivery as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC) in 2005.
Commenting on the Union Government’s plan to launch a National Urban Health Mission which came to light during the Health Ministers’ conference in Hyderabad, Dr. JP recalled in a statement the NAC had recommended a National Health Mission. The Union Government, however, chose to launch a National Rural Health Mission earlier, and now plans a National Urban Health Mission.
The report on National Health Mission, drafted by Dr. JP, recommended that the Government assume total responsibility for extending free primary and secondary healthcare to every one. It suggested that the patient should have the freedom to choose the healthcare provider and that there should be competition between private and public sector health care providers. Payments to hospitals and incentives to doctors would depend on the number of patients they treat.
“By not promoting competition and choice, we are doing more of the same in the healthcare sector. India is the only major economy in the world which does not accord priority to healthcare,” said Dr. JP
Dr. JP pointed out the budgetary allocation to healthcare remained at one percent, although the UPA had committed itself in 2004 to raise it up to three percent.
Because of patchy and unsatisfactory healthcare in the public sector, people turn to costly corporate hospitals and incur heavy debts. Heavy indebtedness in the wake of ill health is driving people to end lives. Governments like Andhra Pradesh by promoting unbridled liquor consumption are ruining people’s health and pauperizing them.