 bill no xxxii of 2008 the  small traders (protection and other welfare measures)  bill,  2008 a billto provide for the protection of traders who are frequently affected by any criminal act ornatural calamity and lose their crops, livestock due to such calamities, by paying them adequate compensation and for welfare measures such as old age pension, removal of indebtedness, remunerative prices for their produce to be undertaken by the state and matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (i) this act may be called the small traders (protection and other welfare measures)act, 2008short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of indiadefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(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) "criminal act" means cheating, kidnapping, abduction, murder, unexpected mishappening (chinati) and such other act as may be notified by the appropriate government;(c) "fund" means the traders welfare fund established under section 5; (d) "natural calamity" includes drought, floods, cyclones, tsunami, earthquakes, hailstorms, extreme cold conditions, and such other conditions as may be notified by the appropriate government from time to time;10(e) "old age" means where the traders has attained the age of sixty years or more; (f) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules under this act; (g) "scheme" means the traders credit scheme framed under section 8;15(h) "traders" means a person who owns trade or business like small shops, and includes hawkers, street vendors etccompensation to traders3 (i) notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every trader who loses his crop, livestock, movable or immovable property due to any natural calamity or criminal act shall be paid adequate compensation by the appropriate government in accordance with the provisions of this act20(2) the amount of compensation, payable to traders affected by any natural calamity or criminal act shall be such as may be specified by the central government from time to time, by notification in the official gazette and while specifying the amount of compensation, the total loss suffered by a trader due to the natural calamity or criminal act shall be taken into account25(3) every claimant for payment of compensation under this act shall apply to the officer so appointed by the appropriate government for the purpose in the prescribed form giving such information as may be prescribed:30provided that a village panchayat may apply for claiming compensation for all the affected traders of the village and it shall be deemed that each trader has applied for the compensation under this act(4) every claim for compensation under this act shall be finalised and the payment shall be made within thirty days of filing of the claim35financial institutions to provide loans4 (i) notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, it shall be mandatory for all the public, private and cooperative sector banks and financial institutions to provide loans on easy terms with nominal or without interest to the traders affected by natural calamity or criminal act to restart the business operations and allied activities and to withstand the severity of the calamity and its aftermath40(2) the banks and financial institutions referred to in sub-section (1) shall also not recover the earlier loan given to the traders by them who have been affected by any natural calamity or criminal act for at least one year after the calamity and the traders shall not be denied fresh loans on this ground5 (i) the central government shall, as soon as may be, by notification in the official gazette, establish a fund to be known as the traders welfare fund for the purposes of this actestablishment of traders welfare fund45(2) the initial corpus of the fund established under sub-section (1) shall be five thousand crore rupees of which four thousand crore rupees shall be provided by the central government, after due appropriation made by parliament in this behalf and one thousand crore rupees shall be provided by the state governments in proportion to their traders population for the purposes of this act(3) after the initial constitution of the fund, money shall be provided to the fund by the central and state governments in such proportions and in such manner as may be prescribed from time to time5(4) the fund shall also consist of money received from general public, body corporate, financial institutions, domestic and foreign, as donations, gifts, etc(5) the fund shall be utilised for the welfare of traders in such manner as may be prescribed6 (i) the appropriate government shall take such appropriate measures as it may deem necessary and expedient for the removal of indebtedness amongst the tradersmeasures for removal of indebtedness10(2) for the purposes of sub-section (1) the appropriate government shall, endeavourto provide compulsory insurance for the tradersold age pension to traders157 (1) the appropriate government shall, on an application made in the prescribed form and after making proper scrutiny of eligibility etc of the applicant pay old age pension to every old trader which shall not be less than two thousand rupees per month from the date of commencement of this act:provided that the old age pension shall be subject to revision on the basis of prevailing price index(2) the old age pension payable under sub-section (1) shall be paid to the traders by the appropriate government in such manner as may be prescribed20(3) any trader who is in receipt of any pension from the appropriate governmentother than the one under this act or is having adequate source of income shall forfeit his right to claim old age pension under this acttraders credit scheme8 (1) the central government shall in consultation with the government of the states, frame a scheme to be known as the "traders credit scheme" to be executed by banks and financial institutions25(2) the scheme shall provide for,—(a) the terms and conditions for extending credit to traders; (b) the extent to which the credit can be given and settling of previous loans taken, if any;30(c) the nominal interest that may be charged on traders credit;(d) the concessions which are to be given in respect of the credit in case of natural calamity;(e) such other things which the central government may deem necessary for the purposes of this act35(3) the central government shall issue such guidelines to the banks and financial institutions as it may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes of this act9 the central government shall, after the due appropriation made by law by parliament in this behalf, provide adequate funds at the disposal of the states for carrying out the purposes of this actadequate funds to be provided by the central government40savings10 the provisions of this act, shall be in addition to and not in derogation of anyother law for the time being in force in any part of the country dealing with the welfare of traderspower to make rules11 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement  of   objects   and   reasonsours is a vast country and so is the number of traders who constitute a major chunk of our total population due to its vastness, natural calamities or criminal activities do occur in one or the other part of the country almost round the year for instance, the whole of rajasthan, parts of gujarat, maharashtra, bihar, uttar pradesh, jharkhand, madhya pradesh, chhattisgarh, etc are drought-prone every year, half of bihar is flooded and the other, half faces drought similarly, in southern states, coastal areas are lashed with cyclones or even by tsunami, whereas other parts face drought conditions many parts of the country face earthquake, hailstorm, cloud bursts, and other natural calamities traders are hounded by the moneylenders to get back their money taken by the traders but natural calamity dashes their hopes and with this, many of them end their lives due to increase in life expectancy, the number of old traders is increasing very fast and most of them are not supported by their children due to various reasons, compelling them to lead a miserable lifesince ours is a welfare state, the government is duty bound to provide social security to the traders by giving them old age pension credit and come to their rescue at times of distress by giving them adequate compensation, if they are affected by natural calamity and by taking other welfare measureshence this billbanwari lal kanchhal financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for compensation to traders affected by any natural calamity or criminal act clause 5 establishes the traders welfare fund clause 7 provides for old age pension to traders and clause 9 provides that central government shall provide requisite and adequate funds to states for carrying out the purposes of the actthe bill, if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees five thousand crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annum a non-recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees five hundred crore may also involve memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 11 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details only the delegation of legislative power is of normal character———— a billto provide for the protection of traders who are frequently affected by any criminal act ornatural calamity and lose their crops, livestock due to such calamities, by paying them adequate compensation and for welfare measures such as old age pension, removal of indebtedness, remunerative prices for their produce to be undertaken by the state and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri banwari lal kanchhal, mp)gmgipmrnd—4755rs—29122008