Budget 2023: FM Sitharaman mixes up 'polluting' with 'political'! MPs burst out laughing

There was a lighter moment today in the Parliament when the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while delivering her Union Budget speech 2023, mixed the word 'polluting' with 'political' as she talked about replacing old polluting vehicles. Following the statement, the members of parliament (MPs) burst out laughing.

"In furtherance of our scrapping policy, I have allocated adequate funds to scrap old vehicles of the Centre and State government. States will be supported in replacing old vehicles," Sitharaman said, adding that replacing old polluting vehicles is an important part of greening and cleaning the economy.

She further added, "Over the next three years, we will facilitate 1 crore farmers to adopt natural farming. For this, 10,000 bio input resource centres will be set up."

Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitat and Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) will be taken up for mangrove plantation wherever feasible.

It must be noted that from April 1, all government-owned vehicles that are older than 15 years will go off the road.

More than nine lakh vehicles, owned by central and state governments, transport corporations and public sector undertakings, will go off the road from April 1 and new vehicles will replace them, Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

A recent notification by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry said that beginning April 1, all vehicles owned by central and state governments, including buses owned by transport corporations and public sector undertakings, that are older than 15 years will be de-registered and scrapped.

The rule shall not apply to the special purpose vehicles (armoured and other specialised vehicles) used for operational purposes for the defence of the country and for the maintenance of law and order and internal security, the notification had said.

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