CPI(M) Gives Voice to Tannirbavi Residents' Protest in Mangalore

Tannirbavi is a picturesque stretch of land, lying between the majestically-flowing Phalguni river and the Arabian Sea, between Kulur and Bengare.

There are about 300 families living in the area over some generations. Out of them, about 98% belong to poor and Dalit classes. Dependent totally on fishing and bidi-rolling occupation, they have been deprived of all benefits that the government makes available by way of developmental works.

for all Tannirbavi residents so far deprived of all such privileges.

Residents complain of the stepmotherly treatment meted out by the city corporation and the governmet and cite the non-issuance of door numbers to their houses as the best example. In the absence of door numbers, they are not entitled to getting any benefits. Ration cards, power connection, water connection, loan facilities, pensions for widows, monthly stipend for the differently able, old age pension and such other benefits have remained out of reach for them.

The only benefit they have so far obtained is the issuance of the voter IDs (EPIC), which too have been issued based on unknown or non-existent door numbers through a nexus between the officials and politicians.

Excepting for a scholarship being given to the Dalit students, where the rest of 22.75% funds earmarked for the community by the MCC go is important question raised by the residents here.

All the ruling party and opposition politicians at the MCC have turned a deaf ear to the demands of the neglected residents of Tannirbavi. Therefore the Communist Party of India Marxist has come out in open support of their agitation.

As part of it, the party's city committee, in association with a few other organizations, organized a procession and a "MCC Chalo" (Laying a siege at the MCC office) on Monday Nov 29. Dalit right activists Baby, Madhava, Jayashri, Jagannath, Lingappa Nantur, CPIM city unit secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal and others were in the procession and led the protest.

The procession began at the Besant school junction and went via Mahatma Gandhi Road towards the MCC office at Lal Bagh. The protesters gathered in front of the MCC office and shouted slogans demanding door number.

(Courtesy : Mangalorean.com)

CPI (M) Orissa State Committee gearing up for mass agitation

Orissa State Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to build public opinion demanding action against culprits involved in the galore of scams that surfaced in recent times.  The party would also take up issues such as permanent job status to casual workers who were forced to work like permanent employee and universalisation of public distribution system.

At the end of the CPI (M)'s State committee meeting, Secretary Janardhan Pati said the 2G spectrum scam had dwarfed all other scams those had come to light earlier. “The Rs.1,76,000 crore involved in the 2G spectrum scam would have made it possible to provide 35-kg rice or wheat per month to all family,” Mr. Pati said.

From December 5 to 11, the party would launch widespread public demonstrations and rallies highlighting cases of corruption those happened during the regime of Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, he said. Mr. Pati said the party cadres would organise public meetings at block level making people aware about the misdeeds by people in power. The State Committee meeting also resolved to step of demand for waiving agricultural loan in 17-drought-affected districts and supply of seeds and water free of cost to farmers for rabi crop. It demanded provision of 10 decimal of homestead and agricultural land to all homeless and landless people in the State. Mr. Pati said during the month of December, January and February, block-level mobilisation programme would culminate in district level.

Trinamool akin to Congress, BJP : Biman Bose

The Trinamool Congress supports an “oppressive” political order just as much as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Biman Bose, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has said.

“The economic policy of the State's main opposition party, the Trinamool Congress, is no different from that of the Congress or the BJP. If I were to give an analogy, I would say that the Congress, the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are born of the same mother's womb,” Mr. Bose said here on Sunday. Mr. Bose said that like the Congress and the BJP, the Trinamool worked for the interests of the landlords in the villages and the industrialists and capitalists in the cities.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also expressed the same view at a recent political rally where he had said that in the past the Congress protected the interests of the landlords, a mantle that the Trinamool had taken over.“Given the policies of the State, we are forced to raise certain issues against the oppressive political order, drawing our inspiration from Marx and Engels,” Mr. Bose said at a function to observe the birth anniversary of Friedrich Engels.

Protest Day

During the day, supporters of the CPI(M) observed a Protest Day against the recent violence witnessed in Kherjuri in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district. Leaders of the CPI(M) have alleged that party supporters, who had been evicted from their homes, were returning but were prevented from doing so by the Trinamool. Party supporters organised a series of meetings and demonstrations at street corners across the State to register their protest.

(Source : The hindu)

Mamata's notion of ‘change' is regressive: Buddhadeb Bhattacharya

Chief Minster Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee dismissed as “regressive” the notion of “change” being promoted by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Barrackpore in West Bengal North 24 Parganas district on Sunday.

 

“Those who are constantly harping on this change that needs to be brought are not progressive, but pushing for regressive ideas instead,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said questioning the kind of change that Ms. Banerjee wanted to usher in the State.

“She wants every project to end in disaster like Singur,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said, emphasising the loss that the State had suffered after Tata Motors withdrew their Nano small car project from Singur.

Dismissed

Admitting that some workers and leaders in his party [Communist party of India (Marxist)] had committed wrongs that had alienated the people, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that they had been dismissed from the party. “We shall have to go back to the people with folded hands,” he said. Criticising Ms. Banerjee for being whimsical, he said the process of industrialisation in the State could not be held back just because she wanted it.

Stating that the Left Front had realised that the State could not progress riding on agriculture alone, he stressed the need for industry. The State had attracted investment worth Rs. 9,000 crore last year. Evoking the Trinamool slogan of “Ma Mati Manus (the mother, the land and the people),” Mr. Bhattacharjee said that the youth of the State could not merely rely on this rhetoric and stay at home without jobs.

Reiterating the alleged links between the Trinamool and the Maoists, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the terror and violence being witnessed were reminiscent of the days when the Congress was in power. “Earlier they [Trinamool Congress] had covert links with the Maoists, but now they openly hold public rallies together,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

(Source : The Hindu)