Ensuring steady flow, ramping up local production: Sitharaman on LPG in RS

Speaking about the additional Rs 19,230 crore fertiliser subsidy, she said it was for exigencies that may arise while importing fertilisers for the Rabi crop. “For the current Kharif, we are well equipped, we have enough fertilisers,” she said.

Many members pointed out that the kitchens at Varanasi’s Annapurna temple had to be shut due to the LPG shortage. “It is said that the ‘bhandaar’ of Maa Annapurna never goes empty, how can the government say that everything is fine?” said Congress member Rajeev Shukla.

Shiv Sena (UBT) member Sanjay Raut said devotees at Shirdi were being given only one laddoo instead of two and there was a cut in the ‘prasad’ as well due to the LPG shortage. He said that the number of ‘vada pavs’ being sold in Mumbai daily has reduced from 20 lakh to 5 lakh, adding that it was having an impact on people’s livelihood.

Speaking on the Bill, TMC member Saket Gokhale said, the government was asking for Rs 4.13 lakh crore as supplementary grants. “This means that the government’s own budget, which they presented last year, was off by almost 8%. This Bill is an … admission that the Finance Minister either cannot forecast expenditure or the Budget presented was a deliberate fiction.”

He went on to say that the Rs 1 lakh crore economic stabilisation fund that was being created was reminiscent of the PM Cares fund in its opacity.

“The funny thing about this fund is that there is no legislation governing it, there are no rules on when it can be drawn, by whom, and for what purpose. There is no oversight mechanism from Parliament…. What is the legal framework governing this fund? Under what statute was it created? Who decides when and how the fund is deployed? … How different is it from the existing Contingency Fund of India that has Rs 30,000 crore and meant for emergency funding? So, why are you creating a parallel fund? This is the government writing a blank cheque to itself,” he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also replied to the discussion on the working of the Rural Development ministry. He said that merely changing the name of a scheme was not a disrespect for Bapu. “Bapu lives in the thoughts, emotions and conscience of the BJP and is reflected in the schemes for the welfare of the poor,” he said. He added that the Congress had named around 600 government programmes or institutions after just one family.

He said one of the questions that people raised about the VB-GRAM-G scheme, other than the name, was that there was no budget allocation. He said that the Centre had already allocated Rs 95,692 crore. He denied the alleged bias in allocation, saying the NDA government was allocating more funds than its predecessor. He said that payments to West Bengal were stopped because the state was misusing the funds.

Expecting insurance cover for all by 2033: FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said health insurance is a priority for the government and it expects insurance cover for all by 2033. She added the insurance sector is expanding and during 2024-25, it covered 58 crore lives.

“Health insurance is a priority for this government. In fact, we are hoping that by 2033 we will have insurance cover for all,” she said.

In December 2025, the minister said, the government came up with a Bill to hike FDI in the insurance sector with an aim to increase its penetration and deepen the market. She said insurance regulator IRDAI notified rules for the rural social sector and third-party obligations in 2024 to increase penetration in rural areas. ENS