Oppose Cash Transfers as substitutes for Public goods

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

 

The direct cash transfer scheme described by the Congress as a “game changer” is indeed a game changer whose rules are weighted against the poor, in favour of the UPA-2 Government’s obsessive commitment to cut subsidies to the working people. The Government has declared that this policy will, once the “system is in place” be extended to food and fertiliser. In a period of high inflation, cash transfers to replace public goods such as these is to actually cut subsidies since the cash to be transferred will not cover the increased costs of the same amount of subsidized foodgrains. This will have an adverse impact on increasing malnutrition and hunger. The CPI(M) strongly opposes such a policy shift away from provision of foodgrains, kerosene, fertilizers etc instead of providing for a universal PDS at controlled prices.

 

The CPI(M) also objects to linking MNREGA wages to the AADHAR card. As has been repeatedly pointed out by experts, biometric identification for manual workers has a high twenty per cent margin of error as fingerprints of such workers change. It is a similar problem for senior citizens. Without any discussion in Parliament on the proposed Bill for UID to push through such changes, which will have far reaching implications for manual workers is unacceptable.

 

As far as scholarships, pensions etc are concerned, most of these schemes are already cash transfer schemes through bank accounts and are fiscal neutral. The amounts and also the coverage should be increased and linked to the price index.

Discuss Issues Raised by Delhi University Teachers

The Left Parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party – have issued the following statement:

The situation in Delhi University is a cause for serious concern.  The Vice Chancellor and the University authorities have introduced a series of measures without proper discussions and consultations with the teaching and academic community.  The teachers have raised a range of objections to the introduction of the semester system for the undergraduate level, a four-year graduation along with the meta college and meta university system.  All these are being pushed through in undue haste. Statutory procedures and established democratic academic practices have been subverted.

These reforms are being pushed through, along with large-scale contractualisation of teachers.  There have been no regular appointments made for 4,000 teaching posts and 5,000 non-teaching posts. 

The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), which is the elected body of all the teachers, has been conducting a peaceful protest against these measures.  The Vice Chancellor and the university authorities have resorted to pay cuts and other coercive measures even when teachers have participated in protests on holidays.  This is patently illegal.  The DUTA has been conducting a relay hunger strike which has now completed 50 days. The Vice Chancellor has refused to recognize and talk to the DUTA leadership.

The decision taken by the university can adversely affect the thousands of students in the colleges affiliated to the university.  The university should not take the position that it will not discuss with the DUTA on all these matters.

Delhi University is a Central Government university.  The Left parties appeal to the Minister for Human Resources Development to immediately intervene and ensure that the issues raised by the DUTA are taken up for discussions by the university authorities.  There should be an immediate halt to the coercive steps such as pay cuts.