President inaugurates military station

President Pranab Mukherjee today inaugurated a new military station in West Bengal's Murshidabad district.
Mukherjee, who had also laid the foundation stone of the project in 2014, said it would be a major military facility between Kolkata in the southern and Siliguri in northern part of the state.
There used to be a military cantonment here during the British period. Because of this historic reason, the station has been named Baharampore military station, though it is actually located at Nabagram, around 25 km away from this district headquarter town.
Though it was inaugurated today, the infrastructure development of the station will go on till 2018, after which it would have occupancy of over 8,000 troops including their families.

It is being developed as a model military station with the state-of-the-art training and administrative facilities integrated with the existing natural features.
Mukherjee said that three D's are essential in a

democracy and these are debate, dissension and decision.
"But there was no fourth D. At least my teacher did not tell me that there is a fourth D which is disruption," he said.
The President pointed out that when India's budget was paltry and when outlay of Five Year Plan was very meagre, two-thirds of time of Parliament was devoted to discussing money and finance.
He said this was because elected representatives in Lok Sabha have singular right under which no tax can be imposed without their approval and neither can any money be withdrawn from the consolidated fund without their approval.

"No amount can be spend from the consolidated fund of India without the approval of Parliament. But if these issues are not debated, when you are spending Rs 16 lakh to Rs 18 lakh crore per year, if these things are not properly scrutinised on the floor of the House, not debated, not discussed, I do not see that our parliamentary system can be very effective and can proceed successfully," he said.
Speaking about the reservation of women, he said the 2014 election showed that no party is "magnanimous" when it comes to giving tickets to them.
He said some sort of reservation should be there in Lok Sabha seats and noted that Rajya Sabha had already passed the Women Reservation Bill.

He said that the government enjoys majority in the Lok Sabha and the House should also pass the Bill.
Talking about electoral reforms, he said the Election Commission has circulated an important document with recommendations for electoral reforms.
"I do feel that we should take it up very seriously and publicly debate," he said, adding after that, if necessary, amendments and corrections for certain electoral reforms which are called for can be made.
He also raised the issue of "simultaneous elections" which he described as "very controversial subject and equally very difficult to attain within the framework of the present Constitution".

He said many are aware that frequent elections are a costly affair which puts a strain on administrative and financial resources.
"But we are ready to pay this price for democracy but it should be not at cost of development in a developing economy like ours. Therefore, we must find a way on how we can ensure that elections are held both in federal Parliament and provincial Assembly together, if possible," he said.