Press Releases Archive

Lok Satta demands new tenancy law

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.

Monday, January 17, 2011 - 16:48

Dr. JP calls for restructuring healthcare delivery

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.

Friday, January 14, 2011 - 18:59

Will never incite anybody, Affirms Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party has not, and will never, foment feelings of animosity and hatred among people based on their region or religion, caste or language, said its leaders at a media conference here today. On the contrary, it always stands for peace and harmony among people of this great nation.

Stoutly refuting some TRS leaders’ charge that Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan had instigated Seemanadhra people to oppose the Telangana movement, Lok Satta Party State Working President DVVS Varma, Secretary P. Bhaskara Rao said that there has been no change in the party’s stand on the Telangana issue. “Formation of Telangana will be neither a panacea nor a disaster,” the party believes. That is why it has been urging the youth of both Telangana and Seemandhra not to succumb to envy, hatred, or fear, and not to resort to violence in their language or behavior.

The Lok Satta believes that problems however intractable they appear to be, could be resolved across the table provided the parties concerned adopt a give and take attitude within the framework of the Constitution. There is no alternative to dialogue in a democratic polity, they added in a statement today.

The Lok Satta leaders appealed to all political parties and civic society organizations to adhere to civility, decency, and democratic norms, and keep in mind larger public interest and nation’s future in public debate and political conduct. “All of us should eschew mutual abuse, calumny, and threats.

“Reasoned public debate, tolerance, and respect for various shades of public opinion are the essence of democracy. Leadership lies in making people think rationally and objectively, based on facts and logic and not on emotion and prejudice.”

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 16:08

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