CPI(M) seeks withdrawal of power tariff hike in Tamil Nadu

The CPI(M) held a demonstration in Chennai urging the State government to withdraw the hike in power tariff.

Addressing the cadres, the party's South Chennai district unit secretary, K. Bheem Rao, said the hike would severely affect those who were living in rented houses.

“The owners of the houses are charging more than the normal amount for electricity from the tenants. Now they will further increase the charge,” he said.

Thermal power projects

Mr. Rao said the government should take steps to achieve the full potential of the thermal power projects instead of providing subsidies to private players in the power sector.

District secretariat committee members A. Packiam, T.A. Latha and Nandagopal were among those who participated in the protest.

(Photos : Gavaskar Theekathir)

Police lathicharge SFI activists

The police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the SFI activists when the latter made a vain bid to enter the Collectorate demanding immediate redressal of the problems confronted by the students of the government hostels, schools and colleges in the district here on Tuesday. Tension prevailed in front of the Collectorate in the afternoon as the police chased away the protesters during a demonstration organised by the SFI demanding prompt action for the resolution of the problems in the social welfare hostels and other government educational institutions identified during a cycle yatra held under the aegis of the committee. Two student activists fainted in the melee.

 

SFI State general secretary K Chandramohan, district president Santhu Naik, general secretary K Narsimha Rao and others participated in the stir.

Later, the officials concerned of the social welfare, tribal welfare and backward classes welfare departments met the protesters outside the Collectorate and assured to resolve the problems already identified by the SFI district committee which fall under their purview. The four SFI activists, who earlier launched an indefinite hunger strike to press a charter of demands, called off their stir following the assurance.

A delegation of the SFI district committee earlier met the Collector N Nageshwar Rao and submitted a memorandum seeking the provision of protected drinking water, basic amenities, medical services and other requisite facilities to the students of the social welfare hostels and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Left Front's Memorandum to CEC

A delegation of Left parties MPs met the Chief Election Commissioner and submitted the following memorandum today. The delegation consisted of Sitaram Yechury (leader, CPI(M) in Rajya Sabha), Basudev Acharia (leader, CPI(M), Lok Sabha) Prabodh Panda (Communist Party of India), Narahari Mahato (All India Forward Bloc) and Prasanta Majumdar (Revolutionary Socialist Party).

Dear Sir,

Sub - Ongoing illegal inclusion of Photo Identity Cards in West Bengal through illegal affidavits

This is to inform you that on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a delegation met Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal on July 10, 2010. They drew his attention regarding the illegal inclusion of fictitious names in voter's lists.

Because of the delay and large-scale mistakes in printing photo identity cards, some interested quarters are flouting the Election Commission's rules illegally by attaching affidavit in Form 6 for the inclusion of fictitious names in voter's lists. The CPI(M) delegation had also submitted some copies of affidavits. The Chief Electoral Officer assured the delegation that BLO cannot accept those affidavits and will be prevented from enlisting fictitious names in the voters' lists. The delegation also informed him that some BLOs are accepting forms in large-scale violation of rules of Election Commission.

The CPI(M) delegation drew the attention of the CEO about the difficulties being faced by the people in hill areas of Darjeeling, flood-affected areas in North Bengal, areas under river-banks erosion, terror affected areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts and the people who have been evicted from their houses in East Midnapur, Khajuri, Nandigram, Moogbaria and other areas and urged upon him to ensure their names are enrolled in the voter's lists.

The CEO is fully aware of these issues and assured the delegation that necessary instructions will be sent and steps would be urgently taken. But there was no instruction given from the Chief Electoral Officer with regard to affidavits. In the meantime, thousands of fictitious and illegal affidavits are being prepared and people from outside are being forcibly deposited in the office of electoral officers who are unfortunately resorting to mass-scale acceptance of those illegal affidavits.

We, therefore, urge upon you to cancel those illegal affidavits and take steps against the electoral officials who accepted those affidavits and initiate legal action against the parties who are resorting to such fraudulent inclusion of fictitious voters directly or indirectly. Necessary steps need to be taken against such activities in the legal proceedings, so that no names could be included without proper enquiries at the time of hearings.

Sitaram Yechury (Leader, CPI(M), Rajya Sabha)

Basudev Acharia (Leader, CPI(M), Lok Sabha

Prabodh Panda (CPI)

Narahari Mahato (AIFB)

Prasanta Majumdar (RSP)

R Singaravelu elected CITU Tamil Nadu state President

CITU Tamil Nadu state committee meeting on August 1-2 elected Com. R Singaravelu as the new state president. The meeting was presided over by CITU all India President A K Padmanabhan. CITU 13th All India conference elected Com A K Padmanabhan as the national president, who was at that time the president of the Tamil Nadu state committe. It is in this context Com Singaravelu was elected the new state president.

He was currently the state joint secretary of the union. He completed his studies from IIT Chennai (B Tech Civil Engineering) in 1971. After the studies he joined the government service and later resigned from the job for social work.

CITU State Secretary A Soundarrajan, T K Ragarajan M P were present at the meeting. He has been working for the last 17 years as CITU state office bearer.

Theekathir Thiruchi Edition from September 5

Theekathir newspaper is adding yet another edition, from Thiruchi. The edition will be inaugurated on September 5th. An organizing committee was formed on Monday in Thiruchi. In that meeting Rupees 1,18,970/- collected by 7 district committees was handed over to CPIM state secretary Com. N Ramakrishnan. September 5 has been choosen as the inauguration day because it happens to be the memorial day of one of the great communist leader Com. A Balasubramaniam and the Ponmalai Martyrs day. The meeting was presided over by CPIM central committee member Com. N Varadarajan.

District secretaries and district committee members from Thiruchi, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Tanjavur, Puthukottai, Karur, Perumpalur participated in the meeting. The meeting decided to organise a big function as part of the inaugural ceremony.

Need of the hour is a change in education policy : Nilotpal Basu

Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre of advancing neo-liberalisation in education, Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) Nilotpal Basu here on Sunday called upon the student community to rise in unison and defeat the purpose of the Government.

 

Inaugurating the four-day “Study Camp of South Indian States” of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), he observed that while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ushered economic liberalisation in the 1990s, the Union Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal was enthusiastic in liberalising the education sector and destabilising the basic objectives of Directive Principles of the State Policy.

He said that the need of the hour was radical transformation of education policy with focus on standardisation of syllabus, fee structure and quality. “It is the responsibility of the student community to force the Government to focus on universalisation of education, without giving room for making education a commodity by corporate forces,” he said.

He said the country's education system was in a pathetic state. Because of reckless privatisation in the education sector, the share of private participation was 17 per cent compared with 7.9 per cent 10 years ago. Over 50 per cent of the educational institutions were under the private sector. Besides that, the Centre was keen to introduce the Private-Public Partnership model.

Criticising the Government's Foreign Education Institution (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill 2010, Mr. Basu said the Bill had given free run to domestic and foreign corporations in the Indian education market.

The challenge

A major challenge before the student community was to fight against the forces that were engaged in dividing the country on communal lines and destroying its plural character. “It is the responsibility of the student community to protect the unity and harmony in the country. The greatest challenge before them is to fight gender inequity,” he noted. Referring to Mysore's rich cultural heritage, he urged the students to develop a "fighting spirit and courage" to take on the evil forces in the society. "Tipu Sultan should be your role model when it comes to valiancy and fighting against evils," he said.

 

KNOWLEDGE IS USED FOR INVESTMENT NOWADAYS:THOMAS JOSEPH  

The era of sharing knowledge for progress of all in society has yielded place to times when knowledge is utilised for making investments, said Thomas Joseph, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Goverment of Kerala. 

Speaking in the seminar on 'Contemporary education system' as part of the study camp on Southern States organised by SFI here, he said education in our system of the past used to shed light. But, nowadays education is confined to seek livelihood. In that context, as the values of education got transformed, use of knowledge too has undergone a change. It has become a means for investment similar to human resource. Knowledge too has become a resource, he opined. Parents make investments in order to provide education to their children. The teaching fraternity receive part of that investment and give back knowledge. Those who acquire knowledge use their knowledge for investment for economic gain. The value of education has thus declined, he remarked. 

Although many reforms have been made in the education sector, a large number of people have not benefited mainly due to poverty. There are families which do not earn even Rs. 20 as daily income. While feeding the members of such families is itself not possible, educating their children is out of question, he said. 

Mayor Sandesh Swamy, inaugurating the seminar, remarked that most of the institutions, instead of providing good education had moved away from their responsibility and focussed on raking in profits. The education system in vogue during the British rule still continued and should be changed, he averred.

Presiding over the function, P.K. Biju, national president, SFI, and MP, said that the study workshop should concentrate on the threat that the education system faces because of neo-liberalism. V.J.K. Nair, National President of CITU, taking part as chief guest recalled that Mysore provided the inspiration for the communist struggle in Kerala. 

Former MLA and SFI founder-leader G.V. Srirama Reddy criticised the policies followed by the Centre and State Governments for higher and technical education saying that they were only burdensome instead of being helpful to students.

Mudigonda Martyrs day observed

Continue land struggle: Yechury

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has called upon party cadres to wage sustained struggle for securing land to all the landless in tune with the aspirations of those killed in Mudigonda police firing three years ago.

Mr. Yechury inaugurated the new building of the party's mandal committee office at Mudigonda on Sunday.

Addressing a public meeting, Mr. Yechury deplored that the government was trying to curb land struggles by force on one hand and handing over valuable lands to influential companies clandestinely.

“Despite availability of surplus land, the government has miserably failed to allocate at least one acre to all the landless peasants as per the recommendations made by the Koneru Ranga Rao Committee in the past,” he lamented.

 Scams galore

“Scams have become the order of the day during the present tenure of the UPA government,” he said.

The illegal mining scams in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka spoke volumes about the misrule and exploitation of mineral resources, he charged.

Price rise

He alleged that the UPA failed to uphold its promises on checking price rise and providing food security. The party cadres should spearhead struggles to check anti-people policies of the government and champion the cause of the poor, he said.

(Courtesy The Hindu)

Make educational reforms methodical: Sitharam Yechury

Citing India's poor education standards, CPI-M politburo Sitaram Yechury demanded a change in the education policy.

To provide free education for all, the existing policy must be modified methodically, he said while inaugurating the south Indian camp of Students of Federation of India at the Dasara Exhibition grounds, in Mysore on Saturday. He called upon the government to form a regulatory authority on the lines of insurance and banking sectors to streamline the education system. Private schools have become commercial. Hence to curb the system, the government must implement a common admission policy and syllabus across the country.

Though free education for children from 6 to 14 years was introduced in 1950, it is yet to be implemented. The lapse is due to lack of political will, said Yechury. In developed countries like the US and UK, education is free. "So, to become a developed country we too should give free education to children," added Yechury.

Of 100 students, 84 students do not reach Class 12, while hardly 9% continue studies. It is a disgrace for India which cannot provide basic amenities like schools, drinking water, nutritious food, health care but afford a tax relief of Rs 1,20,000 crore for the affluent class.

When union finance minister Manmohan Singh presented the budget this year, he mentioned a tax exemption for various corporate companies to the tune of Rs 80,000 crore and Rs 40,000 crore for the rich. Of Rs 1,20,000 crore, the government could have provided schools and other facilities for the students across the country. "In the past one year the number of billionaires in our country has doubled from 26 to 52. Through this system, the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer," added Yechury.

Historian K M Pannikar, Nilotpal Basu, Kerala finance minister T M Thomas Issac, higher education principal secretary Thomas Joseph will take classes for delegates during the four-day event.Selected comrades from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are taking part in the camp. Former MLA G.V. Sriram Reddy, theatre personality C. Basavalingaiah and office-bearers of SFI were present.

CPI (M) plea to preserve Bharathiyar's school

 The CPI (M) State committee has urged Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to take steps to prevent any attempt to sell the building and playground of Ettayapuram Raja Primary and Higher Secondary School where national poet Bharathiyar and Tamil scholar Somasundara Bharathiyar studied.

In his letter to the Chief Minister, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said the government should take over the school.

This aided school is managed by the descendents of Ettaypuram Jameen.

Corruption in Commonwealth Games Organisation

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

 

The reported payment of big sums of money by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to an obscure British based company seems to be a case of high level corruption. The Organising Committee is reported to have paid around Rs. 1.68 crore (2,47,467 pound) to a company, A. M. Films. It is further alleged that this company is receiving 25,000 pounds every month.   More than Rs. 3 crore  has so far been paid to this company. The British government has already pointed out various irregularities in the contract with the company. 

 

It is imperative that the Central Government immediately order a high level investigation into this   contract and the transactions undertaken. It is shocking that such large-scale misuse of public funds has taken place in the name of the Commonwealth Games. The government must act expeditiously and those found guilty must be brought to book.