The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is conducting a Sangharsh Sandesh
Jatha which will traverse the length and breadth of the country. Four
main jathas will start from Kanyakumari, Kolkata, Mumbai and Amritsar to
Delhi. At the conclusion of these jathas, there will be a massive rally
at Delhi on March 19 at Ramlila Maidan.
The purpose of the jatha is to highlight some of the main problems and
issues facing the people and to set out alternative policies advocated
by the CPI(M). The policies of the UPA government at the Centre have
resulted in continuous price rise, agrarian distress, growing
unemployment and massive corruption. There is no difference between the
Congress and the BJP as far as their basic policies are concerned.
The jathas will call for people’s unity to struggle for their basic
rights, against communalism and to demand a reversal of the disastrous
economic policies being followed by both the Congress and the BJP. The
jatha will focus on the following areas:
1) Right to Land and House-sites: Implement land reform policies by
distributing surplus land to the landless. Guarantee house-sites to each
landless household.
2) Curb Price Rise and Right to Food: Universal right to 35 kgs of
foodgrains at a maximum price of rupees two a kg. Scrap APL/BPL based
fraudulent poverty calculations. Stop forward trading in foodgrains and
other essential commodities.
3) Right to Education and Health: Stop privatisation of educational and
health services. Increase allocations for education and health.
Guarantee implementation of the Right to Education Act. Strengthen
public services in health and ensure strict regulation of the private
sector.
4) Right to Employment: Step up public investment to ensure creation of
jobs; lift the ban on recruitment and ensure time-bound recruitment for
all vacancies, particularly for SC/ST/OBC backlog; increase days of work
under NREGA with price index linked minimum wages and expand it to
include guarantee of work days in urban India.
5) Ensure Social Justice and Rights of Women : Curb violence against
women and provide one-third reservation for women in legislatures and
Parliament; end social practices of untouchability and discrimination
against dalits; protect the land and forest rights of adivasis;
provision of equal opportunities in education and jobs for the Muslim
community.
6) End Corruption: Enact Lokpal legislation with independent powers of
investigation; bring back black money stashed in foreign banks; recover
losses from the corporates responsible; send the corrupt to jail.
Programme of the Jathas:
February 24 – launch of the Kanyakumari to Delhi jatha. This jatha will
be led by S. Ramachandran Pillai and the team of leaders will consist of
M. A. Baby, K. Varadharajan, V. Srinivasa Rao and Sudha Sundararaman.
March 1 – Jatha will start from Kolkata to Delhi. This jatha will be led
by Prakash Karat and the team of leaders will consist of Biman Basu,
Jogendra Sharma, Subhashini Ali and J. S. Majumdar.
March 4 – Jatha will start from Jalianwalabagh in Amritsar to Delhi.
This jatha will be led by Brinda Karat and the team of leaders will
consist of Hannan Mollah, Inderjeet Singh and Rajendra Sharma.
March 8 – Jatha will start from Mumbai to Delhi. This jatha will be led
by Sitaram Yechury and the team of leaders will consist of Nilotpal
Basu, Mohd. Salim and Mariam Dhawale.
The Kanyakumari jatha will be flagged off on February 24 by the General Secretary Prakash Karat.
Linking Jathas
From Guwahati (Assam), there will be a jatha to Kolkata starting on
February 23. This jatha will be flagged off by Manik Sarkar, member of
the Polit Bureau.
From Paralakhemundi (Odisha), there will be a jatha to Kolkata starting on February 24.
From Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), there will be a jatha to Chandigarh starting on March 3.From Bhavnagar (Gujarat), there will be a jatha to Indore starting on March 6.
During this period, there will be various sub jathas conducted within the states that will link up to the main jathas. Altogether, more than 10,000 kilometers will be covered by all the
jathas. Ten lakh copies of a booklet explaining the aim of the jatha
have been published in various languages for the campaign.
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