NEW DELHI: Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday called for a national policy to ensure government investments are structured for the greater good.
Responding to a demand by Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav to increase MPs’ funds for developmental projects from ₹5 crore to ₹20 crore annually, Dhankhar said: “On placatory mechanisms, on appeasement, which is often known as freebies, the House needs to deliberate. I will be open to a structured discussion after consulting the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition.”
Dhankhar explained the rational for the national policy: “The electoral process is such that these have become electoral allurements, and thereafter, the governments that came into power found themselves very uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that they wanted to revisit their thoughts..”
On subsidies, the Vice President said: “Subsidies, if required in areas like the farm sector, should be direct. That is the practice in developed countries.The US has one-fifth of the farm households that our country has, but the average income of a US farm household is more than the general income of a US household, and that is because the subsidy to the farmer is direct.”