 bill no 336 of 2015 the national commission for sugarcane farmers bill, 2015 byshri rajesh pandey, mpa billto provide for the constitution of a national commission for sugarcane farmers and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-sixth year of the republic of india as follows:— chapter  i preliminary(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:—definitions(a) 'appropriate government' means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;5(b) 'commission' means the national commission for sugarcane farmers constituted under section 3;(c) 'fund' means the sugarcane farmers and workers welfare fund constituted under section 11;10(d) 'member' means a member of the commission and includes the member-secretary;(e) 'prescribed' means prescribed by rules made under this act(f) 'sugarcane farmer' means a farmer engaged in cultivation of sugarcane and has no income from any source other than cultivation of sugarcane; and15(g) 'sugarcane workers' means a skilled or non-skilled person engaged in sugarcane cultivation chapter  ii the  national  commission  for  sugarcane  farmers203 (1) the central government shall constitute a commission to be known as the national commission for sugarcane farmers to exercise the powers conferred on, and to perform the functions assigned to it, under this act(2) the commission shall consist of—constitution of the national commission for sugarcane farmers(a) a chairperson, committed to the cause of sugarcane farmers livelihood and welfare to be nominated by the central government;25(b)  five members to be nominated by the central government from amongst persons of ability, integrity and standing who had experience in sugarcane farming, understanding the plight of sugarcane farmers, sugar pricing and international issues, social justice, law or legislation and are committed to the welfare of sugarcane farmers;30(c)  vice-chancellors of all agricultural universities, as members ex-officio;(d)  a member-secretary to be nominated by the central government, who shall be —(i)  an expert in the field of management, organizational structure on sugarcane issues, or35(ii)  an officer who is a member of a civil service of the union or of an all-india service or holds a civil post under the union government with appropriate experience, or(iii)  an expert who has done research on agriculture especially on sugarcane and equal/equivalent to the post of  professor in a college or a university404 (1) the chairperson and every member except ex-officio members shall hold office for such period, not exceeding three years, as  may be specified by the central government in this behalfterm of office and conditions of service of chairperon and members45(2) the chairperson or a member (other than the member-secretary who is a member of a civil service of the union or of an all-india service or holds a civil post under the union government) may, by writing and addressed to the central government, resign from the office of chairperson or, as the case may be, of the member at any time(3) the central government shall remove a person from the office of the chairperson or a member, as the case may be, if that person—(a) becomes an undischarged insolvent; (b) gets convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for an offence which in the opinion of the central government involves moral turpitude;5(c) becomes of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court;(d) refuses to act or becomes incapable of acting; (e) without taking leave from the commission, absent himself from three consecutive meetings of the commission; and10(f) in the opinion of the central government, has abused his position of chairperson or a member so as to render his continuance in office detrimental to public interest: provided that no person shall be removed under this sub-section unless he has been given an opportunity of being heard in the matter15(4) a vacancy caused under sub-section (3), shall be filled within one month from the date on which the vacancy has been arisen(5) the salaries and allowances payable  to, and other terms and conditions of service of the chairperson and members shall be such as may be prescribed205 (1) the central government shall provide suitable officers and employees to the commission for its efficient performance under this actofficers and employees of the commission(2) the salaries and allowances payable to, and other terms and conditions of service of officers and employees shall be such as may be prescribed25salaries and allowances to be paid out of grants6 the salaries and allowances payable to the chairperson and the members and the administrative expenses, including salaries, allowances and pensions payable to the officers and other employees referred to in section 5, shall be paid out of the grants referred to in sub-section (1) of section 127 no act or proceeding of the commission shall be questioned on the ground merely of the existence of any vacancy or defect in the constitution of the commissionvacancies not to invalidate proceedings of the commission30committees of the commission8 (1) the commission may, for efficient discharge of its functions, constitute such committees as may be necessary for dealing with or studying issues that may be taken up by the commission from time to time(2) the commission may appoint such members, as it may deem fit, on committees constituted under sub-section (1):35provided that the members of the committee who are not members of the commission shall not have the right to vote on matters of the commission(3) the allowances payable to members appointed to the committees shall be such as may be prescribed9 (1) the commission shall regulate its own procedure40procedure to be regulated by the government(2) all orders and decision of the commission shall be authenticated by the member-secretary chapter iii functions of the commission10 (1) the commission shall perform all or any of the following functions, namely—functions of the commission45(a) undertake annual income surveys of sugarcane farmers and sugarcane workers across various categories, including different crops and landholding sizes;(b) make policy suggestions to ensure that minimum income accrues to farmers across various categories;5(c) design periodically an income security framework for various categories of farmers, inter-alia including market interventions, compensation, subsidies, reduction in cost of production, mechanization, capacity building, credit enhancement, strengthening supply chains or any other tool that the commission deems fit;(d) review, from time to time, various schemes of the central government pertaining to agriculture and income of farmers;10(e) make recommendations to central government for effective implementation of policies and schemes ensuring that the minimum income accrues to farmers;(f) call for special studies and investigations into problems arising out of agrarian distress, and make timely recommendations to the central government for approriate action;15(g) undertake promotional and educational research to ensure minimum incomes for farming households, enhancement of income of farmers and productivity in agriculture;(h) take suo-moto notice of matters relating to—(i) sugarcane farmers' distress particularly sugarcane farmers' suicides across the country;20(ii) non-implementation or poor implementation of policies or schemes of farmers; and(iii) non-compliance of policy decisions, guidelines and instructions taken for farmers (i) evaluate the status of livelihood of sugarcane farmers across various regions in the country;25(j) make periodic reports to the government on any matters pertaining to sugarcane farmers;(k) payment to sugarcane farmers within a week after delivery of sugarcane to sugar mills;30(l) payment of interest at the rate of fifteen per cent for the delay in payment by sugar mills;(m) training of sugarcane farmers and labourers;(n) subsidized loan for fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, equipments, labour and transportation cost to the sugarcane farmers;35(o) compensation to sugarcane farmers in case of loss of crops on non-acceptance of sugarcanes by sugar mills; and(p) take up any other matter that may be referred to it by central government 11 (1) the central government shall constitute a fund to be known as the sugarcane farmers welfare fund for the purposes of this actconstitution of sugarcane farmers welfare fund40(2) the fund shall consist of contributions from central government and state governments in such proportion as may be provided(3) the fund shall be administered by the commission in such manner as may be prescribed chapter  iv finance, accounts and auditgrants by central government512 (1) the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, make to the commission by way of grants such sums of money as the central government may think fit for being utilized for the purposes of this act(2) the commission may spend such sums as it thinks fit for performing the functions under this act, and such sums shall be treated as expenditure payable out of grants under sub-section (1)accounts and audit10| 13                                                                                  ||--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| prepare an annual statement of accounts in such form as may be prescribed by central || government in consultation with comptroller and auditor-general of india            |(2) the accounts of the commission shall be audited by comptroller and auditor-general of india at such intervals as may be specified by him and any expenditure  incurred in connection with such audit shall be payable to comptroller and auditor-general of india15(3) the accounts of the commission, as certified by the comptroller and auditor-general along with the audit report thereon shall be forwarded annually to the central government by the commissionannual report20| 14                                                                                            ||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| as may be prescribed, an annual report giving a true and full account of its activities during || the previous year, and copies thereof shall be forwarded to the central government            |15 the central government shall cause the annual report along with a memorandum of actions taken on recommendations and reasons for non-acceptance of recommendations, if any, of any such recommendations to be laid, as soon as may be, after the reports are received, and the audit report before each house of parliamentannual report and audit report to be laid before parliament2516 the central government shall provide the following facilities to the sugarcane farmers,—facilities to the sugarcane farmers and workers(i) payment of old-age pension at the rate of five thousand per month to everysugarcane farmers and workers who have attained the age of sixty years and is unable to perform his or her job on account of infirmity and incapacity;30| (                                                                                     | ii   | ) subsidized healthcare facilities to the sugarcane farmers and workers and   ||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| dependent family members at the government and other designated hospitals;            |      |                                                                               || (                                                                                     | iii  | ) subsidized education facilities including supply of books, uniform, writing || materials, transportation and hostel facilities for the children of sugarcane farmers |      |                                                                               || and workers;                                                                          |      |                                                                               |(iv) free insurance cover to sugarcane farmers and workers; and35(v) subsidized housing loan to sugarcane farmers and workers17 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by the parliament by law in this behalf, provide such sums of money to the state governments, as may be necessary for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide adequate funds40 chapter v miscellaneous18 the chairperson, the members, officers and the other employees of the commission shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of section 21 of the indian penal code, 1860chairperson members and staff of the commission to be public servants19 the central government shall consult the commission on all major policy matters affecting farmerscentral government to consult commission power to make rules20 (1) the central government may by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this act5(2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely—(a) salaries, allowances and terms and conditions of service of chairperson and members under sub-section (5) of section 4 and other employees and officers under sub-section (2) of section 510(b) allowances paid to members appointed to committees under sub-section (3)of section 8(c) other matters under sub-section (3) of section 4 on the basis of which the central government can remove a chairperson or member from the commission15(d) the form, and timeline as per which the annual statements of accounts shall be maintained under section 1220(3) every rule made under this act shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive session and if before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or successive sessions aforesaid both houses agree in making any modification in the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonssugarcane is yearly crop and thus multi cropping in the sugarcane farm is not possiblethe labour in the sugarcane farming is required only for less than half of the year and only in peak season of sowing and harvesting due to lack of other crops farming in a year the labourer remain unemployed the labour employed in sugar farming is marginal workers who get employment for less than six months in a year the price of sugarcane is not decided by market but fixed by the government year to year and varies from state to state it is not a market regulated produce but government regulated the payment to farmers from sugar mills is also not instant but received only after few weeks of delivering the sugarcane to mills in recent years, due to non-payment of their dues by mills, the conditions of farmers and labourers has become worst the sugarcane farmers are not able to pay their dues and loans and meet the family expenditure on time moreover, the cases of farmers' suicide has risen alarmingly the farmers engaged in sugarcane farming are always burdened with debt and are not able to pay to labourers on time non-payment to labourers lead to their suffering and thus forming a vicious circle which further leads to migration of labourers leaving the farming and looking for some other option for livelihood many farmers, due to financial stress, resort to anti-social activities like drinking, family violence, drugs etc the bill, therefore, seeks to ensure provisions of certain safeguards aimed at welfare of sugarcane farmers and labourershence this billnew delhi;rajesh pandeynovember 13, 2015 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for constitution of the national commission for sugarcane farmers clause 6 provides for salaries and allowances to be paid to the chairperson and members of the commission clause 8 provides for appointment of commission to deal with or study issues that may be taken by the commission clause 11 provides for constitution of sugarcane farmers welfare fund for the welfare of sugarcane farmers clause 12 provides that the central government shall provide funds to the commission clause 13 provides for payment of expenditure incurred in connection with audit of the commission clause 16 of the bill provides that the central government shall provide certain facilities to the sugarcane workers and farmers clause 17 provides that the central government shall provide adequate funds to the states for carrying out the purposes of the act the bill, therefore, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees one thousand crore will be involved as a recurring expenditure per annum from the consolidated fund of indiaa non-recurring expenditure of rupees fifty crore is also likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 20 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for the constitution of a national commission for sugarcane farmers and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shri rajesh pandey, mp)gmgipmrnd—2878ls(s3)—09122015