The CPI(M) Kerala State secretariat has alleged that the
policies and strategies of the Congress-led coalition governments in the
State and at the Centre were threatening the very right of the citizens
to exist.
In a statement after a meeting to assess
the preparations for the August 22 blockade of the district
collectorates and the Secretariat in Kerala announced earlier, the party’s State
secretariat said a massive public agitation had now become a necessity
to persuade the State and Central governments to change their ways. The blockade would be to highlight two demands: “Ensure food security and prevent price rise.”
The
party said the policies of the State and Central governments, designed
along neoliberal lines, were intended to squeeze the poor on the one
side and fatten the corporate houses on the other. Prices of all
essential commodities were going up steadily.
The
yardsticks used for determining the people who were below the poverty
line had been changed in such a way as to exclude more poor people from
the list requiring protection under the public distribution system. Rice
stock had piled up in the warehouses and was rotting, but the poor
people were not getting it.
