It is clear that the drawing up of a comprehensive National Plan becomes clearly an academic exercise with no relation to reality unless the planning authority or those to whom it is responsible are in a position to give effect to the Plan. If this authority is powerless or circumscribed or restricted and has limited activities, it cannot Plan. An Essential Pre-Requisite for Planning is thus complete freedom and independence for the country and removal of all outside control. This implies that the country possesses in itself full sovereign authority to take any measures, adopt any policies, and from any relations with other countries as may seem best to its governing authority in the interests of the country and its people. National Independence is thus an indispensable preliminary for taking all the steps that might be found necessary for carrying out the Five Year Plan in all its various aspects throughout the whole country. At the present moment, it is clear that not only have we in India no National Independence, but we are Hedged in and obstructed by numerous restrictions, limitations, safeguards and reservations which block the path to planning and Progress! This is largely attributable to a surge in daily new cases in Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. All these States have recorded a rise in daily new cases, a press release issued by the Health Ministry said. India reported 16,738 new cases in the 24 hours till 8 a.m. On Thursday of them, 89.57% are from seven States. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807 followed by Kerala with 4,106 while Punjab reported 558 new cases. "On the other hand, the country has been witnessing a continous decline in the cumulative positvity rate. The opinion of the attorney general on the constitutional validity of the bill has already been laid on the table of this house. Hon. Members may have also seen reports of the discussions in the other house which have since been circulated to them. I have nothing much to add to these issues except to confirm that, in our view parliament is fully competent to legislate on a measure of this type and that the restrictions which this bill seeks to impose are reasonable restrictions and are in the interests of the general public.
