" We will embark on a direct action "

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member K. Varadarajan inaugurating the meeting

The Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to the CPI(M), on Tuesday threatened to enter the land allegedly occupied by P. D. Dinakaran, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, on November 9, if the State government failed to reclaim and distribute it to the poor.

“We will embark on a direct action and distribute the land to landless farmers and the poor in Kaverirajapuram village in Tiruvallur district. I will lead the agitation,” said CPI(M) Polit Bureau member K. Varadarajan, who is also general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).

Addressing a fast organised by the Sangam to urge the State government to reclaim thousands of acres of government land encroached upon by influential persons across the State, Mr. Varadarajan said this exemplified the ongoing trend in Tamil Nadu.

Though the ruling DMK, in its manifesto, had promised to distribute 50 lakh acres of government land to the poor, it was not able to distribute even 3,000 acres because the lands were in the hands of the rich.

“Kaverirajapuram will be our first target. We will launch similar actions in other areas if the government remains inactive,” he warned.

Sangam general secretary K. Balakrishnan demanded a CBI inquiry into all allegations of encroachment in the State. He sought to know why Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who had immediately appointed a commission to inquire into land grabbing at Siruthavur after receiving complaints, was hesitating to order a probe into a similar act by a judge. “We will mobilise people and launch protests to put pressure on the government. We won’t be cowed down.”

CPI (M) State secretary N. Varadarajan said the party would fully involve itself in the agitation to retrieve the encroached land. “The struggle will not confine itself to Kaverirajapuram. It will spread all over the State.”

CITU general secretary A. Soundararajan said temples and religious mutts also should be brought under the purview of the Land Ceiling Act.

CPI (M) State secretary N. Varadarajan

“We also need a probe into land-grabbing by various educational institutions,” he said. V.M. Raman, a native of Kaverirajapuram and founder of the Thalam Charitable Trust, who participated in the protest, said that was the duty of the government to distribute land that had been encroached upon to the poor, since the Collector had identified it.

(COURTESY - THE HINDU)

(Photos : Gavaskar)

LEFT FRONT CANDIDATES FOR BENGAL ASSEMBLY BY-POLLS ANNOUNCED

KOLKATA,13th OCTOBER: Meeting on the morning of 13 October at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, Biman Basu presided, the Bengal Left Front finalised the list of LF candidates for the by-elections scheduled for 7 November in Bengal.

Nine of the 10 seats fell vacant when the incumbent members won Lok Sabha seats. One constituency fell vacant following the passing away of the late comrade Subhas Chakraborty, i.e., Belgachia east in Kolkata.

Name of Constituency Candidate Party
11-Kalchini (ST) Benoy Bhusan Karketta RSP
21-Rajgunj (SC) Dhanapati Roy CPI(M)
29-Goalpokhar Ali Imran Ramj FB
48-Sujapore Mohd Esar-ud-din Mondal CPI (M)
85-Bongaon Pankaj Ghosh CPI (M)
139-Belgachia east Ramala Bhattacharya Chakraborty CPI (M)
148-Alipur Kaustav Chatterjee CPI (M)
180-Serampore Prasanta Mukherjee CPI
211-Contai (SC) Satyendra Nath panda CPI
213-Egra Prabodh Chandra Sinha DSP

Biman Basu revealed that a small booklet would soon be published and circulated widely as the ‘Appeal’ of the LF to the voters of the concerned Assembly seats. The district LF units would finalise the joint campaign very soon following meetings of the respective units.

LEFT FRONT ANNOUNCES CANDIDATES FOR KERALA BYE POLL

The CPI(M) and CPI have picked their nominees for Kannur, Eranakulam and Alappuzha constituencies for the Assembly by elections slated for November 7. The CPI(M) the name of party State committee member M.V. Jayarajan as the party nominee in Kannur and P.N. Sinulal, a councillor and CPI M district committe member, as its candidate in Ernakulam.
CPI State executive decided to field G. Krishnaprasad, former State president of the All India Students Federation (AISF) and party district council member, in Alappuzha.
The LDF has evidently stolen a march over its rival in electioneering. It has already held election conventions in all the three constituencies. The LDF candidates of Kannur and Alappuzha started making house visits days ago. The constituencies are also replete with their multi-coloured posters and graffiti. The front’s well-oiled election machinery is working in full strength.


P.N. Sinulal



M V Jayarajan



G. Krishnaprasad

Centre aggressively pursuing policies of liberalisation: V S Achuthanandan

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies being accelerated by the Manmohan Singh government in its second tenure will adversely affect the people.

Inaugurating the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Kannur Assembly constituency election convention to mark the formal launching of the campaign of the LDF candidate here for the by-election on November 7, the Chief Minister said here on Monday that the country was saved from serious financial crisis as a result of the intervention of the Left parties that supported the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Now, the Manmohan Singh government was implementing the privatisation and globalisation programmes aggressively, he said, adding that the Central government was planning to disinvest up to 49 per cent of government stake in the public sector banks and insurance companies. Also detrimental to the public was the move to divert pension funds into the stock market, he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan said the LDF delegation led by him had urged the Prime Minister to make amendments in the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement before India signed it as the agreement contained various proposals that would adversely affect the State. Though the Prime Minister had promised to do so, he failed to keep the assurance, the Chief Minister said. He said the United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders who had been defending the FTA were not serving the interests of the State.

Assuring that his government would continue its efforts to assign land to the landless people in the State, the Chief Minister said the government was delighted that the Chengara agitation had been settled as 1700-odd families there would be given land soon. Recalling the State government's Munnar operation against land grabbing, he said the government would try to restore encroached lands.

The Chief Minister said the LDF candidate M.V. Jayarajan, who had been MLA during 2001-2006 when he was the Leader of the Opposition, had been in the forefront of various agitations against corruption in and outside the Assembly.

Ministers N.K. Premachandran, Ramachandran Kadannappally and K.P. Rajendran were among those who addressed the convention.

(courtesy : The hindu)

KERALA : Large turnout to form human chain

There was large turnout of people to line up along the National Highway here to be part of the State-wide human chain formed on Friday as part of the protest organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) against the Indo-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.
FTA signed violating democratic norms: Karat

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has termed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a gross violation of democratic norms and called upon the Centre to review it.

Inaugurating a rally organised before the Raj Bhavan here as a prelude to a mammoth ‘human chain’ linking the two ends of Kerala on Friday, Mr. Karat pointed out that the Centre had not cared to consult the State government before entering signing the agreement with the ASEAN. The agreement with the ASEAN could be seen only as the beginning of worse things to come. Provisions of the agreement would have disastrous consequences for the State’s economy notwithstanding the protective clauses that the Centre claims to have incorporated in it. The worst hit would be coconut and rubber growers of Kerala. The agreement might well result in Kerala losing its identity as a cash crop growing State and, unless resisted, several such agreements would be imposed on the country through the backdoor, the CPI(M) general secretary said.

Addressing the meeting, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan accused the Centre of having shown scant regard for the State’s concerns about the implications of the agreement. The State had tried its best to convince the Centre about the impact the agreement would have on Kerala’s agriculture, fisheries and traditional industries, but there was no positive response from the Centre. If the Centre did not heed the strong resentment about the agreement, as manifest in the ‘human chain’ programme, it would lead to even stronger agitations, the Chief Minister said.

Chairing the meeting, CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said any attempt to implement the agreement with the ASEAN would meet with strong resistance from the people of Kerala and added that any bid to market products from the ASEAN in Kerala would be thwarted.

Thousands of CPI(M) workers, sympathisers and fellow travellers besides prominent persons from different walks of life formed part of the ‘human chain’, organised as a mark of protest against the FTA with the ASEAN and took a pledge to resist the Centre’s attempts to impose neo-colonial agenda on the State.

(courtesy : The hindu)

Com. Azheekodan Raghavan Day

Com. Azheekodan Raghavan died on 23rd September 1972, falling victim to a physical attack during night in Thrissur by a group of miscreants posing as political extremists. This was a heinous crime committed with the covert support of the ruling classes. Com. Azheekodan who was party State Secretariat member and convenor of the Left Front at his death, played a prominent role in organising the Communist Party and class organisations in the state, as well as in building the Party in its fight against left and right deviations.

TAMIL NADU - Left parties to meet in Chennai on October 7

N. Varadarajan, State Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist),

speaking at a demonstration, near Rajagopal Goundar Park,
in Dharmapuri on Tuesday
urging the government to issue pattas to Dalits living at Sengodipuram.

DHARMAPURI: Left parties in the State have convened a special conference in Chennai on October 7 to discuss spiralling rise in the prices of essential commodities in the country, N. Varadarajan, State Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Tuesday.

Mr. Varadarajan said the CPI (M) condemned the Dharmapuri Municipality’s indifferent attitude towards the 55 Dalit families living in Sengodipuram.

He said the resolution adopted by the municipality was against the interest of the Dalits. If the Dalits in Sengodipuram were denied pattas, the party would organise a State-wide agitation, Mr. Varadarajan said.

He alleged that the government over the years had given pattas for those living on the 4.25-acre land and was denying pattas to the Dalits living on 56 cents in Sengodipuram for over six decades.

Brinda Karat issue

When the situation in Uthapuram was peaceful, why did the Thiruparankundram police stop the party’s national leader Brinda Karat and take her to the police station, he asked. The government should not have handled the issue in this manner, he said.

(The Hindu)

Workers’ protest leads to lathi-charge on CPI(M) leaders, agitators arrested

Women protesters surround an unconscious Manzur Patel,
district general secretary of the CITU,
after police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the agitators,
in Gulbarga on Tuesday.

GULBARGA: The police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse workers of the unorganised sector, owing allegiance to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), who were picketing the Vikasa Soudha complex demanding an increase in minimum wages and regularisation of services of daily-wage workers.

Several leaders, including Secretary of the State unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Maruti Manpade; District General Secretary of the CITU Manzur Patel; CPI(M) leaders Gangamma Biradar, Gouramma Patil; Kalpana, General Secretary of the Anganwadi Workers’ Union; District President of the CITU Shanta Ghanti; and Chincholi taluk panchayat member Sharanabasappa Mamshetty, were injured in the lathi-charge.

Mr. Patel became unconscious and once he regained consciousness the police took him away in a police van. According to CPI(M) party sources, Mr. Patel again slipped into unconsciousness at the University Police station where the protesters were lodged.

The police were seen dragging women protesters into the waiting police vans. Several vehicles, including a NEKRTC bus, two private buses and several two-wheelers were damaged in the stone-pelting. Speaking to presspersons from the police van, Mr. Manpade condemned the undemocratic act of the police and called for a Gulbarga city bandh on September 17 when Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa would be visiting the city to participate in the Liberation Day celebrations.

The trouble began when the protesters tried to prevent the entry of the vehicle of Superintendent of Police Padmanayan at the main gate of the Vikas Soudha at the fag end of the protest. Mr. Padmanayan got out of his vehicle and approached Mr. Manpade asking him to make away for him to enter the Deputy Commissioner’s office to hold discussions with the officials to break the deadlock and end the picketing amicably.

Argument

The CPI(M) workers refused to do so stating that no one would be allowed to enter the Vikasa Soudha unless the district administration held talks with the protesters regarding their 17-point demand. This led to a heated argument between Mr. Manpade and Mr. Padmanayan. One of the CPI(M) workers allegedly grabbed Mr. Padmanayan’s shirt. The police then resorted to mild lathi-charge to allow Mr. Padmanayan to enter the complex, and took Mr. Manpade into custody. This enraged the protesters and they began to pelt stones at the police, who resorted to lathi-charge and arrested the protesters. At least eight police personnel suffered injuries in the stone-throwing.

Condemned

The CITU, Karnataka State Committee, has condemned the lathi-charge and arrest of unorganised sector workers who were on a State-wide agitation. The CITU has urged the Government to meet the demands of the protesters besides taking action against the police officials responsible for the lathi-charge.

CITU leaders said that the police had lathi-charged peaceful agitators which had resulted in severe injuries to three in Gulbarga, six in Raichur and more than 10 in other places. “Women activists were also beaten up and policemen behaved rudely with them,” they alleged.

(The Hindu)

Udupi: CITU Takes up Cudgels on Behalf of Unorganized Labour

Udupi, Sep 15: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) led the protestors and laid siege to the office of the deputy commissioner of the district here on Tuesday September 15, demanding better treatment and facilities for the unorganized workers like the daily wagers, those working on contractor basis, against payment of honorarium etc.

A large number of workers belonging to these sectors took part in the protest. They were demanding for the meeting of at least some of their demands, which are basic essentials for a decent living. They demanded for the fixation of a minimum monthly wages of Rs 6,000 per month for all categories of the workers all over the state. Pointing out that expenditure of residence, like rent, has been taking away a big chunk of their earnings, they demanded that house sites be allotted to the unorganized labourers in the state. The other demands put forth by them included issuance of ration cards to all of them, provision of 14 essential goods at a reasonable rate through the fair price shops, abolition of the contract labour system and making the services of the contract labourers permanent and to draw up plans to strictly monitor the enforcement of labour laws.

They wanted that the services of all the workers hired through the process of direct recruitment by the government, like the Anganwadi staff, those engaged with the ‘Akshara Dasoha’ scheme, people working in gram panchayats on temporary basis, volunteers under 'Asha' scheme and other daily wagers working for the government, be absorbed into regular service with immediate effect.

The leaders pointed out that the owners of industrial units have received government packages, after they ran into rough weather due to the global economic downturn. Pointing out that the people and labourers working for these units have also suffered, they demanded that these people too be adequately compensated. Bringing the unorganized sector within the ambit of social security, making issuance of identity card to all of them mandatory etc., were the other demands the protestors put forth.

CITU general secretary Vishwanath Rai, president K Shankar, leaders Mahabal Voderhobli, Ramesh Mendon, Dogu Suvarna, Das Bhandary, Vittal Poojary, Sanjeev Nayak, Rajiv Poojary etc., were present. After the leaders addressed the protestors in front of the office of the deputy commissioner here, they were arrested by the policemen and released later.

(courtesy :www.daijiworld.com)

Mangalore: Hike quota for Dalits in budget

"The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) should increase the reservation proportion for Dalits in the budget from 18% to 22.75% as declared by the State government,demanded CPI(M) Action Committee for Integrated Implementation of 18% Scheme Convenor J P Vasudeva.

He was addressing party workers at a protest organised by the Action Committee demanding proper implementation of schemes for Dalits in front of the MCC Office here on Tuesday.

He said, "there is a downward trend in the Human Development Index (HDI) of Dalits in Mangalore city. Dalits, who lack proper housing facility, live in slum areas and also are facing severe health hazards.The HDI of Dalits in Mangalore is in a dire state only because of the lack of proper implementation of schemes by the MCC authorities, he charged.

Vasudeva urged that the annual income ceiling fixed for the beneficiaries under the 18% Scheme should be withdrawn. The financial aid being distributed to Dalits for the construction of house should be increased to Rs 3 lakh, he said and added that the formalities and conditions in schemes for Dalits should be liberalised.

CPI(M) District Committee member Krishnappa Konchadi urged that all schemes sanctioned for Dalits should be implemented in a transparent manner through a single window system. Authorities should liberalise procedures on humanitarian grounds to make available the benefits under various schemes to Dalits properly, he added. Konchadi demanded that electricity connections should be provided for houses of all Dalits in the city. Schemes should be implemented to provide houses for all Dalits, who do not have shelter, he said adding that benefits of all schemes should be made available to Dalits atleast within a month of application date.

CPI(M) Mangalore City Committee Secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) district President Muneer Katipalla were present.

(Courtesy : Mangalorean.com)