CPI(M) Nadia district conference

The Trinamool Congress-led government is taking West Bengal towards a dangerous situation, said the former Chief Minister and CPIM P B Member Comrade Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Sunday. The ruling party was as confused as were the policies of the State government. This would spell disaster, if not resisted.

He was speaking at a rally on the occasion of the Nadia district conference of the CPI(M) at Krishnangar. In a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government's handling of the incident resulting in the police firing at Magrahat in South 24 Parganas district, the devastating fire at the AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria, and the hooch tragedy at Sangrampur, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that each day there was a new law and order problem.

‘Timely treatment'

Referring to the liquor tragedy, he said: “It is only because of the lack of proper treatment that so many people died. Had there been timely treatment many lives could have been saved … There were neither the required number of doctors nor medicines and the administration had even failed to arrange for ambulances to bring the sick to the hospital.” He was also critical of the State government in its handling the situation in the Darjeeling hills and in the Maoist-affected Jangalmahal region. He alleged that the government had further complicated matters in Darjeeling, where it had given leeway to divisive forces and precipitated the situation where unrest could erupt anytime now. The Trinamool government had failed to set its priorities right in Jangalmahal, where it was taking on the CPI(M) instead of Maoists.

“The wrong-doings will have to be eliminated and the party will have to resume its position as the one which the people want,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said, adding there was no recourse but moving forward. He came down strongly on the Union government for its economic policies which had resulted in spiralling prices of essential commodities.

If the Centre continued to de-control the price of petrol, not provide subsidies to bring down the prices of essential items and merely go by the diktats of the World Bank, “only those with money will survive, those without will not.”

Claiming that the ground beneath the Manmohan Singh government was shaky, he ridiculed the Trinamool for its superficial opposition to matters like the rise in fuel prices though it continued to be part of the same government.

CPIM Kolar District Conference

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kolar District Conference has urged the Union Government to set up a railway coach factory in Kolar district as announced in the Railway Budget 2010-11.

The Centre should give priority for local people while recruiting employees for the factory to mitigate the unemployment problem in the parched region, the CPI(M) said in a resolution at its district conference that concluded at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) on Monday.

The conference demanded more railway infrastructure in the district to boost development.

The conference urged both the Union and State governments to take necessary steps towards implementing an order of the Karnataka High Court directing the Centre to resume the mining operations of Bharat Gold Mines Ltd. (BGML) in public sector.

There was no progress in this direction in spite of the apex court's indictment of the State Government for not taking any steps for revival of the gold mines, CPI (M) State secretary V.J.K. Nair said.

Pointing out that some vested interests were misleading the court, Mr. Nair said: “The BGML was not winded up. Only the mining operations are stopped.” Some people with vested interests are trying to privatise mining operations to reap benefits out of it, he said

Some unscrupulous elements, claiming to be the former employees and officers of BGML, were engaging lawyers to fight their case in the Supreme Court. While the former workers and their families live in abject poverty, from where these people got money to pay to lawyers, he asked.

Ahead of the conference a procession and public meeting was organised in Netaji Park at KGF on Sunday. S.P. Agatyalingam, senior leader of the Tamil Nadu state committe of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has criticised the Union Government for its failure to protect the interests of the erstwhile employees of Bharat Gold Mines Ltd. (BGML).

Though the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance Government closed down the BGML, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government did little to resume its operations, he said.

Addressing the meeting, CPI (M) State secretary V.J.K. Nair said the Union Government had helped the corporate sector by waiving taxes to the tune of Rs. 21 lakh crore in the last three years. CPI (M) district unit secretary G. Arjunan presided over the meeting.

CPI (M) State secretariat member G.C. Bayya Reddy, state committee member Gandhinagar Narayanaswamy and district leader V. Geetha spoke.