New Delhi, Dec 4 (Agency) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member K Laxman on Wednesday raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of drinking water crisis in the country and demanded immediate steps to resolve it.Raising the issue with the permission of the Chairman, during the Zero Hour, Laxman said, “Crores of people in the country are deprived of clean drinking water supply. This has also put their health at risk. The government should pay immediate attention to this and make arrangements for conservation of water”. Meanwhile, Madan Rathore of the BJP raised the issue of drugs and its impact on the young generation. Nominated member PT Usha demanded recruitment of reserved posts for sportspersons in government jobs. BJP’s Dinesh Sharma raised the issue of giving priority to environmental protection. BJP’s Darshana Singh said that medical tourism has become a major growing industry across the world.
India is emerging as a major country in the field of medical tourism, where patients coming from other countries get high quality services at low cost. A large number of foreign tourists come to India for treatment in Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani and Homeopathy. Medical tourism market in India is huge.He said that to promote medical tourism, insurance coverage and cashless medical services should be expanded for patients coming from other countries by partnering with health insurance companies. Also, to overcome the language related problems of patients coming from other countries, services in different languages should be provided and a system to strengthen the customer care should be developed so that patients coming from other countries can get maximum benefit and India can be established as a major medical tourism destination. Sikander Kumar of BJP raised the issue of increasing cases of cancer due to use of pesticides in agriculture. He said that people coming in contact with pesticides are also getting cancer. He urged the Government to seriously think about natural and organic farming. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Naresh Bansal expressing concern over social media demanded censorship on OTT and social media saying that it is essential to preserve the cultural and social value. DMK’s M Shanmugam demanded inclusion of unemployed artisans of textile sector in Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana.