Rail Budget 2010: Total Gimmickry

The Railway Budget presented in Parliament today exposed a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Indian Railways. Far from containing any vision for the future of the Indian Railways, the Budget speech has sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal

Railway Budget 2010: Total Gimmickry

The Railway Budget presented in Parliament today exposed a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Indian Railways. Far from containing any vision for the future of the Indian Railways, the Budget speech has sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Over 120 railway accidents have taken place so far during this financial year. In this backdrop it is inexplicable how the allocations for the Railway Safety Fund has been cut by Rs. 579 crore from last year. Moreover, the Minister has strangely tried to shift the blame for railway accidents on to rail rokos and natural disasters! This shows the Minister’s distorted perspective on the crucial aspect of railway safety.

As per the Railway Ministry’s own estimates, over 1.7 lakhs Railway posts were lying vacant in 2009, out of which nearly 90000 were posts related to railway safety. The Minister has kept completely silent on filling up these vacancies, which can provide job opportunities to the youth.

The Railway’s operating ratio (the ratio of total working expenses to the earnings – a higher ratio implies deterioration), which was 90.5% in 2008-09 has risen to 94.7% in 2009-10. Such a sharp deterioration in just one year reflects the gross mismanagement of Railway affairs by the Minister. Gross Traffic Receipts in 2009-10 have fallen short of the budgeted estimate by Rs. 63 crore. Moreover, plan investment in Railways also fell short of the budgeted target of 2009-10 by Rs. 497 crore. This clearly shows that the Railway Minister has not been able to implement the tall promises that she made in the last Budget. In this context the grandiose announcements of projects ranging from hospitals and diagnostic centres, sports academies and musuems ring a trifle hollow.

By the Railway Minister's own admission, many of her project announcements were made without the sanction of the Planning Commission. Their implementation therefore is highly suspect. This is further borne out by the fact that for 2010-11, plan investment in Railways is budgeted to increase by only Rs. 1142 crore, which amounts to a drastic fall in plan investment in real terms. While the Railway Minister has made tall claims on laying 1000 kms of new railway lines, it is shocking that the actual plan allocations for gauge conversion, doubling of railway lines and new rolling stock like wagons and carriages have been cut in nominal terms. This squeeze in public investment in the Railways is accompanied by an unprecedented thrust towards privatisation in all areas in the name of PPP: from modernisation of railway stations; new railway lines; freight and passenger corridors; locomotive, wagon and container manufacturing; rail axle factory; parking complexes and bottling plants. This wholesale privatisation programme for the Railways, opening up the entire sector for private profiteering, will be inimical to national interest. It appears as if the entire decision-making in the Railway Ministry has been handed over to the corporate sector.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) calls upon the people to protest against these proposals, which are neither in the interest of the Railways nor in the interests of providing relief and better travel and communication facilities.

Workers bid tearful adieu to Comrade WR Varadarajan

Senior CPI-M leader W R Varadarajan, given a tearful adieu by party workers. Sixty-four-year-old Varadarajan's body was cremated in an electric crematorium in the city.
The body was taken out in procession before it was cremated at the Kannamapet crematorium.

Senior party leaders, trade union leaders, leaders of various political parties and thousands of CPI(M) cadres paid their homage to WRV at the party headquarters, where his body was kept.

Earlier in the day, party leaders received the body from the Government Royapettah Hospital and took it to WRV’s residence in Anna Nagar.

State secretary of the party G. Ramakrishnan said the wish of WRV — that his body should be donated for medical research — could not be fulfilled as it was not in a good condition.

“Twelve days have elapsed since it was fished out from the lake,” he said, explaining that the body would be cremated as per the wish of his family members.

Later, addressing a funeral meeting at the crematorium, Mr. N Varadarajan CC member of CPIM said the party accorded various positions to WRV, in recognition of his talent and contribution, and he also lived up to the expectations.

Recalling his association with WRV, senior party leader N. Sankaraiah said strengthening the party in Tamil Nadu on a par with the party organisation in Left-ruling States alone would be a great tribute to the late leader.

Polit Bureau member K. Varadarajan said enemies who waited for an occasion to settle scores with the party used the death of WRV to achieve their goal.

CITU general secretary and WRV’s associate in trade union movement A. Soundararajan said when unions held talks with managements represented by highly qualified persons, WRV effectively argued the views of the workers.

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday hailed W.R. Varada Rajan for his constructive approach in debates of the Assembly.

In a statement, Mr. Karunanidhi recalled that when Mr.Varada Rajan represented the Villivakkam Assembly constituency (from 1989-91), he (Mr. Karunanidhi) had always looked to constructive suggestions from the CPI (M) leader, who did not cause disappointment to his expectations and fail to bring to the government’s notice issues that deserved follow-up.

Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Chennai Mayor M. Subramanian, senior CPI leader R. Nallakannu, AITUC leader A.R.S Mani, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan, AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam, D. Jayakumar and K.A. Sengottaiyan and vice-chairman of the State planning commission M. Naganathan were among those who paid their homage.

(Photos : Gavaskar Theekathir)

RED SALUTE TO COM. W R VARADARAJAN

(1945-2010)

Com. Prakash Karat , General Secretary of the CPI(M) had issued the following statement.:

We are shocked and grieved at the death of W.R. Varadarajan. He was a valued comrade who contributed to the development of the party and trade union movement.

The tragic manner of his death has been painful for all of us. I convey my heartfelt sympathy to his wife, sons and other family members.

22-02-2010

NEW DELHI

Funeral of comrade WRV today

As the fingerprint analysis confirmed the death of CPI(M) leader W.R. Varada Rajan, the party announced that his funeral will be held on Tuesday.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) M. Shakeel Akhter said fingerprints of Varada Rajan obtained from the U.S. Consulate matched with those of the body in the mortuary of the government Royapettah Hospital. The U.S. Consulate had recorded his fingerprints when he applied for a visa.

“His wife identified the body on Sunday. Matching of fingerprints further confirms it. We have also sought DNA analysis in this case,” Mr. Shakeel said.

The body was fished out from Porur lake on February 13. CPI(M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said the body would be kept at the party office in T. Nagar from 11 a.m. for party cadre and the public to pay their homage. The funeral procession will start at 3 p.m. “His death is an irreparable loss to the Communist movement,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

All India Education Convention

February 19, 2010: In the run up to the All India Education Convention in JNU, SFI had organized a rally in Delhi University which was followed by a public meeting at Vivekanda statue, Arts Faculty. The rally started from Vishwavidyalaya metro Station at 11am with SFI delegates from all over the country participating in it. The rally culminated in a public meeting addressed by former all India general secretary of SFI and Former M.P. Com.Nilotpal Basu ,All India General Secretary of SFI Com.Ritabrata Bannerjee,All India Joint Secretary Com.Shivadasan and Delhi State President Com.Roshan. Com.G.Selva presided over the meeting.

The rally echoed the resolve of the SFI and the larger student community to resist the commercialization and centralization of education and reaffirmed the legacy of the ‘study and struggle’. This resolve was resoundingly reflected in the public meeting as the speakers addressing the meeting asserted the basic right of the students to education and also the democratic rights of the students, while highlighting the anti-people anti-student nature of the policies pursued by the congress led UPA government.

Com.Nilotpal Basu began his inspiring and insightful address by reminding the comrades of the great anti-imperialist legacy of the student movement in India as the conscious and awakened student community having accessed the modern education and hence the modern ideals performed a crucial role in the anti-imperialist freedom struggle against the British colonizers. Focusing on the worsening status of India in terms of Human Development and grossly inadequate expenditure on education inspite of the universalisation of education being included in the directive principles of the constitution, he urged the students to rise in unison to address these issues and struggle for the achievement of the unfulfilled [i]promises in the education sector so as to change the present set up which is marked by highly inegalitarian tendencies. Criticising the empty-rhetoric mongering of the self proclaimed ‘revolutionary’ organizations Com. Basu said that the question posed before the student community is whether to struggle over the real issues of education, employment, inequalities or to indulge in the anarchist violence in the name of revolution, without ever raising a voice of protest over the actually existing injustices. Exposing the hollow commitment of the UPA government to the universalisation of education he said that there has been no financial memorandum along with the right to education act, laying down the provision of funds for its implementation. He further attacked the UPA government for the proposal of HRD ministry to centralize the decision making processes regarding the education by bringing all the matters in the domain of a 7 member ‘expert’ group as this proposal is essentially anti-democratic as it completely neglects the diverse nature of the issues faced by the different parts and the sections of the country. Com.Basu emphasized the necessity of resisting these policies through the united action of students along with the working classes of the country and asserting the right to education. He concluded by saying that let a wave of struggles emerge in this country to defeat the anti-people anti-student policies of the UPA government.

Com.Ritabrata Banerjee drew the attention of the comrades to the spate of organized assaults on the student community from the government and affirmed the resolve of the SFI to resist these assaults steadfastly. Asserting that ‘when politics determines education, we have to determine politics’ he asserted the necessity of the struggle to maintain and regain the democratic rights of the student community which have come under the axe of neoliberal regime which has set out to depoliticize the student community. Saluting the Undying legacy of the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for SFI Com.Ritabrata appealed the comrades to uphold SFI’s legacy of ‘Study,Struggle and Sacrifice’.

Com.Shivadasan placed the assaults on the student community in the larger context of the rightwing assaults on left-forces and emphasized that SFI needs to rise up to these challenges as a part of the larger democratic movement in the country.

Com.Roshan focused on the impossibility of the universalisation of education under the neoliberal-capitalist regime as the education being seen in its fullest meaning raises the level of consciousness of the students which would motivate them to fight against the prevalent injustices and oppressions under the neoliberal-capitalist regime. He asserted the opposition of the SFI to the foreign education providers bill as it essentially amounts to the commecialisation of education and is motivated by the profit-making drive.

Delhi State Secretary of SFI Com. Robert Rahman Raman delivered the vote of thanks and the Delegates from all over the country proceeded to JNU for the all India Education convention, only to sharpen and intensify the struggle against the commercialization and centralization of education.

SFI CEC also takes this opportunity to congratulate its Presidency College Unit, Kolkata District Committee and WB State Committee for winning the Presidency College Students’ Union Elections.

Great Victory for SFI in Westbengal College Elections

The Students Federation of India (SFI) not only retained its dominance but also increased its strength in the students’ union election of the Presidency College on Friday. The SFI won the students’ union election for the second consecutive year winning 39 seats while the Opposition, including the Independent Consolidation (IC) and the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad (TCP), bagged 32 of the 71 seats.
Meanwhile, the SFI also made a near clean sweep in the students’ union elections at the Scottish Church College by winning 33 of the 37 seats.

• 14 colleges election was held on 19.02.10 at nadia districts in west bengal. Out of these 14 colleges SFI wins at 7 colleges.
• .kalayani mahavidyala= sfi 45 - tmcp 8
• chakdaha college= sfi 59- tmcp 0
• haringhata mahavidyalaya = sfi 38- tmcp 8
• krishnagar govt college = sfi 84 -tmcp 0
• krishnagar commerce college = sfi 76- tmcp 0
  
• sfi also wins at chapra college and in bethua college with a healthy margin.
• in north 24 pargana sfi wins at naihati rishi bankim chandra college morning at 33-10 margin

CITU DENOUNCES THE GOVERNMENT DECISION TO ENHANCE PRICES OF UREA AND OTHER FERTLISERS

CITU strongly opposes the Government’s decision to increase the Urea price by 10 per cent and to deregulate prices of other fertilizers. CITU also denounces much opposed Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme for phosphatic and potassic fertilizers.

The decisions once again exposes Government’s total insensitive approach and apathy to the plight of the people reeling under skyrocketing price of essential commodities, mainly the food items. The Government has renewed its attempts to deregulate the prices of essential agricultural inputs like fertilizer to allow the manufacturers to garner huge profits through sale of their products at global price under Import Parity Price (IPP) method, which is most unrealistic and has no link with the actual production cost.

CITU strongly feels that this decision coupled with Government’s effort to increase the price of Diesel will destabilize the food security of the India, specially when the country is facing severe draught and flood situations in various parts of country and the agricultural productivity has declined. The so called explanation given in favour of the NBS that it will depict the actual demand of the fertilizers in the country and promote realistic pricing of fertilizers in the internationals market, is a reprehensible attempt to mislead the people when actual objective of the Corporate - friendly Government is to allow the fertilizer producers to hike the prices of their products to the level of International price. Deregulation of pricing in fertilizer industry to attract fresh investment in this sector is yet another attempt to disown the responsibility of reviving the closed fertilizer units in public sector, namely, Durgapur, Haldia (West Bengal), Sindri (Jharkhand), Baruni(Bihar), Talcher (Orissa), Gorakhpur (U.P) and Ramagundam (A.P) through public investment and to gurantee windfall profits to private players.

CITU, therefore, urges upon the Government to withdraw the disastrous decision forthwith and declare:

a) Regulation of prices for all types of fertilizers in order to achieve self-sufficiency in fertilizer production to ensure food security on the country.

b) Time bound commitment to revive the closed fertilizer units in Public Sector.

February 19 : Chittabrata Majumdar Memorial Day

  

(1935-2007)

Born on August 14, 1935 in the district of Dacca in erstwhile undivided Bengal, of Swarnalata and Khshitishchandra, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was a science graduate from the Calcutta University and he later read textile technology at the Bengal Textile Institute at Serampore in Hooghly. Renouncing offers of a professional job of a textile technologist, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar preferred what was a low-paying teacher’s job at the Salkia Vidyapith.

TU ORGANISER

A part of the rousing tide of mass struggles of the 1950s, Comrade Majumdar was involved first with the students’ movement, and later with the TU movement, being received into the then undivided CPI in 1956. He worked as one of the main Party organiser of the Howrah district and spent a large slice of his daily life organising workers. Concentrating on developing the TU movement in the engineering industry in particular, Comrade Majumdar became the secretary of the metal workers’ union in Howrah. He had intimate contact with the TU units of Bridge and Roof, Reyroll Burn, Hooghly Dock and Engineers, Bicko Lawry and other outfits. 

Taking a leadership role in Howrah in the battle against revisionism of the 1960s, Comrade Majumdar put to good use his deep insight into the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. On the CPI being split in 1964, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar played a significant role in building up the Howrah unit of the CPI(M). He worked at the district Party centre along with Communist stalwarts like Comrades Naresh Dasgupta, Joykesh Mukherjee, and Harisadhan Mitra. Incarcerated for a year and four months under the Defence of India Act by the then Congress government, Comrade Majumdar, on coming out of the jail, became a Party wholetimer.

In 1968, he became a member of the district secretariat of the Howrah unit of the CPI(M). Winning by a massive margin from the Howrah (north) Assembly constituency in 1977, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar became the minister for cottage and small-scale industries in the first Left Front government, and played a crucial role in the expansion of these sectors of industries across the state. 

Comrade Majumdar also looked after the building up of such state-run institutions catering small-scale goods as the Tantuja, the Tantusree, and the Manjusha. Interested in scientific and technological developments, Comrade Majumdar gave an organisational form to the people’s science movement in Bengal, being one of the chief architects of the Paschimbanga Vigyan Manch. Later as a member of the Rajya Sabha, Comrade Majumdar played a significant role in opposing the industrial, labour, and financial policies of the union government.

PARTY ORGANISER

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar had a significant role to play in the organisation of the Salkia Plenum in 1978. He was elected as a member of the state committee of the CPI(M) in 1982, inducted into the state secretariat in 1985. A specialist in producing the Party Education series booklets and pamphlets, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar combined his deep knowledge of Marxism-Leninism with a subtle yet simple style of writing. A member of the central committee of the CPI(M) in 1995 at the Chandigarh Party Congress, Comrade Majumdar was made a member of the Polit Bureau in 2004 at the Delhi Party Congress.

A TU organiser of the highest calibre, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was a member of the general council of CITU when it was formed in 1970. He was elected the general secretary of the Bengal unit of the CITU in 1990 as a leading TU organiser. He was made one of the secretaries of the CITU at the national level in 1991. Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was elected to the post of the all-India general secretary of the CITU at the 12th all-India conference of the CITU held in Chennai, re-elected to the post from the Bangalore conference in 2007.

Dedicated to the task of a united workers’ struggle against the sweep of liberalisation and globalisation, Comrade Majumdar was of the firm opinion that the struggle was for changing the policy, which would lead to a change in the government at the centre. He always spoke of the importance of taking the workers’ struggle out of the circle of economic demands into the wider realm of political struggles and movements. He also played an important role in setting up an international solidarity of workers against the dictates of imperialist globalisation.

Comrade Majumdar wrote innumerable essays and articles on such subjects as Marxism-Leninism, political economy, ideology of the Communist Party, and Party and TU organisation. Some of his writings were brought together and published in a small anthology called Ek, dui, teen (in Bengali). Comrade Majumdar represented the CITU in International TU conferences and in the ILO. He remained the editor-in-chief of the internet edition of the Ganashakti. 

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar’s humble lifestyle, his depth of knowledge, his role as a dedicated Communist, and his achievements as a TU organiser who led from the front shall remain as icons of inspiration that he leaves behind for the present and the future generations of Communists, TU organisers, and workers.

On the 64th Anniversary of the Naval Rising of 1946

A Sketch By Chithaprasad on 1946 RIN uprising

On 18 February 1946, one of the most significant episodes in the history of anti-imperialist mass militancy in late colonial India began. It shook the foundations of the British Empire in its last days and revealed an alternative vision of decolonization from below which contradicted the social interests of the Indian upper classes.

The Ratings of the colonial ‘Royal Indian Navy’, who had survived the slaughter during the Second World War and contributed to the victory over Fascism, started a strike against low wages, poor food and racist harassment. The strike began in the battleship ‘Talwar’ stationed in the Bombay harbour and within 48 hours enveloped the naval bases of Bombay and Karachi. Even ships stationed in Aden and Bahrein responded to the strike. Soon 74 ships, four flotillas and 20 shore establishments had joined the movement in the Arabian Sea. The naval ratings removed the Union Jack and hoisted the flags of the Congress, the Muslim League and the Communist Party of India. Though initially peaceful, the protests turned violent when the colonial authorities termed the strike as a ‘mutiny’ and opened fire. The ratings retaliated in kind. The naval strike now assumed the shape of a mass uprising and affected all major port-cities of British India. In Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta, workers led by the Communist Party observed General Strikes.  Solidarity strikes were observed in the Royal Air Force also. Fierce fighting between common people and the colonial army and the police claimed 228 lives in the streets of Bombay; these were three blood-soaked days of optimum class resistance to imperialism which lasted from 21 to 23 February. Though the ratings were forced to surrender in Bombay and Karachi on the 23rd, the working-classes continued to fight and the popular upheaval persisted till 25 February.

 

The Communist Party of India, the third largest political force at the time, extended full support to the naval ratings and mobilized the working-classes in metropolitan centres. The two prinicipal bourgeois parties of British India, the Congress and the Muslim League, refused to support the rising. The class content of the mass uprising frightened them and they urged the ratings to surrender. Patel and Jinnah, two representative faces of the communal divide, were united on this issue and Gandhi also condemned the ‘Mutineers’. The only prominent leader from nationalist ranks who supported them was Aruna Asaf Ali. Upon surrender, the ratings faced court-martial, imprisonment and victimization.

 

Even after 1947, the memories of the naval strike, the related massacre and the betrayal of the people evoked uneasy responses among ruling circles of Independent India and Pakistan. These  governments refused to reinstate the sacked ratings or offer compensation. The rising was championed by Marxist cultural activists from Bengal and its radical promise was recalled through post-1947 struggles. Salil Chaudhury wrote a revolutionary song (see MS4) in 1946 on behalf of the Indian People’s Theatre Association. Later, Hemanga Biswas, another veteran of the IPTA, composed a commemorative tribute. Perhaps the best left representation remains Utpal Dutt’s play Kallol. Written in the 1960s, it was banned by the Congress government of West Bengal which felt criticized and cornered by rising left-led mass movements against its policies. Dutt himself was briefly jailed.

 

The brutal suppression of the naval rising of 1946 displayed the violence of the British Raj in its dying moments and the complicity of the subcontinental ruling-classes-in-waiting in stemming anti-imperialist assertions from below. However, this episode convinced the European masters that they could no longer depend on the Indian armed forces to continue colonial occupation. They were also worried by a degree of sympathy which the naval strike generated among the war-weary and left-wing segments of the white troops deployed in India. This accelerated the process of negotiated exit from the colony.

(Courtesy : Pragoti)

Charter of Demands of All India Convention on Employment

The DYFI organized a two day long Convention on Employment in New Delhi on 10-11 February 2010. The Convention was inaugurated by Com. Prakash Karat. Deliberations in the Convention started with the presentation of an approach paper by the DYFI CEC followed by the presentation of 9 papers on various aspects of the employment problem in India. These were followed by a vibrant discussion by the delegates attending the Convention.
 

Charter of Demands

CREATE SECURE JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL!

NO TO JOBLESS GDP GROWTH; REVERSE NEOLIBERAL POLICIES!!

FORMULATE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY!!

General Demands:

• No to Privatization and Disinvestment of Central Public Sector Enterprises; Expand public investment by CPSEs for expansion and modernization using Rs. 5 lakh crore reserves and surplus in sectors like power, railways, oil and gas, steel, coal, telecom, defence, Research and Development etc.; Unlock the lands of closed factories in public and private sectors by removing legal hurdles for setting up new industries.
• Lift ban on recruitment and abolition of existing posts in different Central and State Government departments and PSEs; Make public status of all vacancies in Government departments and initiate fresh recruitment; Stop outsourcing, contractorisation and recruitment of retired employees in permanent jobs. 
• Release employment data along with quarterly GDP estimates (every three months); Stop releasing unemployment data once in 5 years; NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) and Labour Bureau should collect and publish regular data on employment/unemployment both for the organised and unorganised sector.
•    Implement land and tenancy reforms and distribute joint pattas for land; Increase public investment in agriculture and irrigation; Strengthen public procurement of crops at remunerative prices; Provide subsidised agricultural inputs; Ensure small farmers’  
•  Fulfill reservation quotas and all backlogs for SC/STs and OBCs; Implement Ranganath Mishra Commission’s recommendation to provide job reservations to minorities; Extend reservations to the private sector.
• Ensure equal pay for equal work for women and men; Provide security for women employees; Prevent sexual harassment at workplace; Abolish child labour.
• Ensure balanced regional development; Adopt special development package for North Eastern region with emphasis on infrastructure and industrial development like power, railways, telecommunications, oil refining etc.; Provide Government jobs to militancy affected youth in Jammu & Kashmir and North East.

For Rural Youth

• Expand the scope of the NREGA to all individuals (not only to households) and enhance the cap of 100 days; Increase minimum wages to at least Rs. 160/- per day and ensure regular wage payment; Expand the schedule of permissible works to include individual beneficiary schemes, social services, etc.; Delegate decision making powers about the type of  
• Appoint local persons on a regular basis as village employment assistants or Rozgar Sevaks; Pay unemployment allowance to job card holders not given work; Combat corruption in NREGA implementation.
• Enact comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers ensuring minimum wages and social security; Link minimum wages to inflation index.
• Implement recommendations of National Commission on Farmers on creation of skilled jobs in agriculture through horticulture, energy plantations, animal husbandry, biomass utilization etc; Set up Farm Schools in all village panchayats for training and skill development of young cultivators; Promote agro processing industries in rural areas through small enterprises, cooperatives and Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
• Amend the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and enact a Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in order to minimize displacement and ensure adequate compensation, sharing of profit and livelihood security for land losers and displaced persons; Amend SEZ Act to curb real estate bubbles and tax concessions; Strictly regulate land use to prevent land hoarding and speculation and promote employment intensive industrialisation.

For Tribal Youth

• Ensure remunerative employment opportunities in tribal areas through NREGA; Strengthen public procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) for minor forest produce and coarse cereals; Strengthen TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd.) and facilitate local level processing and value addition of tribal Initiate intensive socio-economic development programmes in tribal areas through expansion of PDS outlets, schools, colleges and hostels (especially for girls), training institutes, health centres, expansion of credit, irrigation, roads, power, telecommunication, market infrastructure, extension services etc.
• Implement ST reservations in all posts and services; Extend ST reservations to the private sector; Remove anomalies and exclusions in notifying tribes as Scheduled to ensure all deserving groups are included; Act against issuers and receivers of  
• Recognize and vest forest rights for tribals, distribute pattas speedily and implement fully the provisions of the ST and OFD (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act; Assign government barren and waste lands to landless tribals; Provide homestead land and housing 
• Prevent tribal land alienation; Implement Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act; Strengthen gram sabhas in tribal areas; Implement 5^th & 6^th schedule provisions and declare autonomous councils in tribal districts. 

For Urban Youth

• Initiate Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme at minimum wages with one-third jobs reserved for women; Bring public works and infrastructure projects in urban areas under the employment guarantee; Provide BPL cards to all unemployed persons and poor informal workers; Stop forcible eviction of slum dwellers, street vendors etc.; Ensure proper rehabilitation of displaced persons.
• Universalize social security; Amend central legislation to provide for provident fund, pension, health insurance, accident benefit and death benefits for all workers in the unorganized sector (not only BPL) as per the recommendation of the NCEUS (National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector); Set up National Social Security Fund to finance unorganised sector social security schemes; Implement 8 hours working day for all unorganised sector workers; Strictly implement minimum wages and link them to inflation index.
• Enact comprehensive legislation for protecting the lives and livelihoods of migrant informal workers including pravasis; Impose strict punishment for anti-migrant violence and compensate victims; Issue identity cards for migrant workers to ensure access  
•  Launch national level programme on Employment Assurance and Skill Formation as per NCEUS recommendation to provide 6 months assured training and apprenticeship to all willing youth; Expand vocational training institutes like Polytechnics, ITI and ITCs and implement affirmative action in private training institutes; Initiate certificate 
• Revamp and modernise employment exchanges; Provide unemployment allowance to the registered unemployed; Integrate Employment exchanges with skill development initiatives and provide information on private sector jobs too; Launch Government sponsored job portal (website) to disseminate information about employment opportunities in the public as well as  Enhance financial support for self-employment schemes, SHGs and small enterprises, especially for small women entrepreneurs; Provide cheap credit, training, promote quality control and certification/branding for products of self-employed run enterprises; Check corruption in self-employment schemes.

Maoist Attack on Police Camp

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

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep shock and condemnation of the Maoist attack on a police camp in Shilda in West Midnapur district which resulted in the death of 24 persons belonging to the Eastern Frontier Rifles. A student has also died in the incident. This incident exposes the vicious violence indulged in by the Maoists.

The Maoists have been on a rampage in the West Midnapur district for over a year. The joint operations by the state police and the central paramilitary forces were launched to curb the Maoist violence. It is surprising that such an attack could be launched in daytime on a police camp with such large casualties and arms and ammunition being taken away.

There is necessity for better coordination between the state police and the Central paramilitary forces. The Central Government should ensure that joint operations begin across the border in Jharkhand, without delay.

The Polit Bureau conveys its heartfelt sympathies to all the families of the policemen and the civilian who has died in this brutal attack.