Opposition demands hike in budgetary allocation for promoting R&D in science and tech

Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha on Thursday accused the BJP of politicising the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and said the government should increase budgetary allocation for promoting research and development in science and technology.

Participating in a discussion in the House on the success of Chandrayaan-3 and other achievements of the nation in the space sector, Congress MP Dean Kuriakose alleged that the BJP was politicising the success of the third moon mission by claiming that everything has been done after 2014.

It was Jawaharlal Nehru who coined the term 'scientific temper' which is now used the world over, he claimed and demanded that there should be a mini science museum and science centre in all Lok Sabha constituencies.

Pointing out that governance is a continuous process, Danish Ali of the BSP expressed surprise that both sides tried to politicise this issue during the debate. This mission has been successful due to the work done by the previous governments and this government, he said.

Ali expressed disappointment over the ''cut'' in the budgetary allocation for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and said it has been reduced by 8 per cent this year despite the success achieved by the organisation.

C Thomas of Kerala Congress (M) regretted that the funding for research and development is coming down as a percentage of GDP and demanded that the government should increase budgetary allocation for scientific institutions.

RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal demanded that the government hold discussions on the unemployment issue and accused it of failing to control price rise. He also urged the government to roll back the Agnipath scheme.

The Agnipath scheme provides for the recruitment of youths in the armed forces for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years. The personnel recruited under the new scheme are known as Agniveers.

Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said that several scientists have contributed to the success of Chandrayaan-3 and the whole world is praising the ISRO which was set up 60 years ago.

Referring to the solar mission Aditya-L1, he said some people may have a problem with the name Aditya, in an oblige reference to Aditya Thackeray, the son of Uddhav Thackeray.

He further said that it was not good to play politics over India's space mission and exuded confidence that a day will come when not a rover but a ''Hindustani'' will unfurl the national flag on the Moon.

N K Premchandran of the RSP said that the root of the success can be traced back to the leadership of Nehru who was responsible for setting up institutions like ISRO.

During the discussion, the issue of the arrest of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu cropped up, leading to acrimony between the YSRCP and TDP members.

When Margani Bharat Ram of the YSRCP started speaking about alleged corruption involving Naidu, TDP objected saying that the sub-judice matter cannot be discussed in the House.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)