Review decision to allow power plants: CPI (M)

 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the government scrap the decision to allow 7 power plants with an estimated 15,000 MW capacity in Srikakulam, including the orders issued in favour of East Coast Energy Pvt Ltd.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu said the government should review the decision to permit power plants in Srikakulam, Nellore and other districts and convene an all-party meeting to discuss the policy.

ECEPL claim far from truth

 There was no truth in the claim made by the East Coast Energy Private Limited (ECEPL) that it commenced work on its super critical thermal energy plant at Kakarapalli in Srikakulam district after receiving all clearances and according to law, the district committee of CPI(M) said here on Thursday.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests instructing ECEPL to stop construction activity saying that it violated the law showed that the claim of the company that the work was being done on the land not fit for agriculture was false, district secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao said.

At Kakarapalli and at Sompeta earlier, the “tampara” or “beela” agriculture land was falsely noted as waste land by the government officials. ECEPL also made a false claim that it had taken up construction activity only on 1,317 acres, while the fact was that construction activity was going on 3,000 acres.

This would lead to submersion of 40,000 acres of agriculture fields. This was the reason why people were opposing the plant. Mr. Narasinga Rao said the Ministry of Environment and Forests should have learnt the lesson after Sompeta and stopped the ECEPL plant by examining the conditions at Kakarapalli on its own. “It is not proper to react and examine the situation after two people were killed in police firing,” Mr. Narasinga Rao said.

CPI(M) to contest 17 seats in Assam

The CPI(M) will contest 17 Assembly constituencies in Assam where polls will be held in two phases on April 4 and April 11. 

CPI(M) Assam unit secretary Uddhab Barman on Thursday told reporters here that the party has given ticket to new faces with several senior members, including himself, not contesting.

The party will contest two seats in Barak Valley with Kripesh Ranjan Dasgupta and Parimal Kanti Paul as candidates.The CPI(M) candidates for Bijni, Abhyapuri North and Sorbhog constituencies are Gajendra Barman, Rabin Das and Manoranjan Talukdar. 

Abdul Karim Bhuyan, Nizamuddin Khan, Biren Sarma, Rabin Sarma and Ananta Deka will contest from Jania, Sarukhetri, Nalbari and Rangia. 

The party will also contest from Dhekiajuli, Rangapara, Sootea and Hojai constituencies where it has put up Junuma Boro, Rabin Tamuli, Khemraj Chetri, and Jogneshwar Das.

The candidates for Dhakuakhana, Naharkatia and Sadiya are Gyananath Mili, Sasa Kamal Handique and Labeswar Gogoi.

LDF Vikasana Munnetta Jatha Concludes with massive mandate

Two ‘Vikasana Munnetta Jathas’ led by Kerala’s Left Democratic front flagged off on February 18, 2011 concluded on March 2nd 2011. The two zonal marches highlighted the achievements of the pro-people policies taken by the LDF government and also exposed the anti-people policies pursued by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and earlier UDF government in the state.

CPI state secretary C K Chandrappan, off in Kochi the southern region rally led by state Home Minister and CPI(M) polit bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan flagged off the northern region march at Manjeswaram (Kasargod), led by CPI legislative party leader and Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran.

The northern march from Manjeswaram (Kasargod), led by Divakaran, started its journey covered seven districts of Kasargod, Kannur, Wynad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Palghat and concluded at Trichur. Similarly the other Jatha led by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, traveled through Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alleppey, Pathanamthitta, Kollam and culminated at Trivandrum.

Both the jathas were organised as a part of the massive LDF campaign that was going on in the state explaining the need to defeat the anti-people policies of the UDF. The Jathas covered all the 140 assembly constituencies of the state and massive meetings were organized in all the constituencies.

CPIM State Secretary inaugurated the concluding function of the southern regional march in Trivandrum. He said "LDF is well prepared to face the polls and will retrun to power for the second consecutive term. He urged all LDF sympathisers to come out to work for the victory of each and every LDF candidates. Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the UDF was attacking Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan as part of a strategy to escape from the scandals involving their leaders. Pinarayi alleged that the recent bomb blast at Nadapuram was part of a conspiracy hatched by Muslim League and a terrorist organisation. The bombs had exploded when they were being made as part of a larger conspiracy for creating violence in the State to divert the attention from the ongoing controversies in which the League leaders were involved. A certain section of League leaders had a close relation with this terrorist organisation which was part of a larger national and international network, he said. CPI national executive member Panniyan Ravindran, RSP state secretary V P Ramakrishna Pillai, jatha members Transport Minister Jose Thettayil, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran, Water Resources Minister N K Premachandran, Ports Minister V Surendran Pillai, NCP leader Mammen Iype, Congress (S) leader P M Joy and Law Minister M. Vijayakumar and Forests Minister Benoy Viswom were among those who were present. V Sivankutty MLA presided over the function. Around 25,000 peoples participated in the valedictory function.


The Northern Regional jatha concluded in Thrissur and the valeditory function was inaugurated by Com. Vaikom Viswan, Convenor of Left Democratic Front. He said that seat-sharing talks of the LDF would be held on March 10.

PM & Govt Stand Exposed in CVC appointment

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

The verdict of the Supreme Court setting aside the appointment of P J Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, is a serious indictment of the UPA government. The Supreme Court has stated that the high-powered panel headed by the Prime Minister did not consider the integrity aspect of the institution of the Central Vigilance Commission.

The manner in which the former telecom secretary was appointed as the CVC is directly related to how the UPA government handled the 2G spectrum scam. The Prime Minister has reiterated in parliament that there was nothing wrong with the telecom policy as such and only there were problems in implementation. With such a blinkered view, appointment of P J Thomas, ignoring his record, is part of the piece.

With this judgement of the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister and the government stand exposed to the charge that they are not concerned with ensuring the integrity of the CVC or fighting corruption in high places.

CITU flays Union Budget

CITU denounces the utter insensitivity of the Union Budget 2011-12 to the most pressing and burning issues before the common people, the toiling class in particular, viz. price rise and public distribution system and rising unemployment. The issue of universal social security of the vast unorganized sector workers also stands totally ignored.

The budget has not addressed a single step in addressing the issue of relentless price rise especially of food items which is bringing tremendous miseries and hardship to the mass of the working populace. Rather, the Govt overtures reflected both in the Economic Survey (2010-11), and the Budget Speech clearly signal its policy of patronizing the Corporate Traders and Speculators in the commodity market on the plea of modernizing the supply chain. The Finance Minister is eloquent in while admitting that more than 40 millions tons food grains are stored with the Govt at present (which is much above the buffer stock norm) but does not bother to propose any step to distribute the surplus grains, at reduced prices through strengthened Public Distribution system in order to generate downward push in the food prices.

That the high price phenomenon in basic food commodities is being nourished and promoted by the Govt. to facilitate the windfall gains by the corporate traders through speculation and hoarding has become crystal clear from all such actions as well as its loud projection of present inflation as growth-induced and its pleadings for liberalized FDI-entry in multi-brand retail trade. It continued to remain negligent towards addressing the crisis situation in agriculture supplying food and other basic necessities to people. Despite devoting long speeches on the urgent need for improving the agriculture, the budgetary provisions remained much below the requirement and actually marked a decline both as proportion to overall budgetary expenditure and as percentage of GDP.

CITU resents the way the budget has totally ignored the demand for a National Social Security Fund for unorganized sector with allocation of substantial fund put forth unanimously by All the Central Trade Unions in the country and also recommended by the National Social Security Board headed by the Union Labour Minister. In the background of continuous and consistent countrywide struggle by the Anganwadi workers and helpers the rise in their remuneration announced in the budget is a delayed but welcome development. However, it must be noted simultaneously that still remuneration of these Anganwadi workers and helpers will remain much below even the statutory minimum wage despite their frontline role in country’s flagship child development scheme.

Govt’s bias against common people stands exposed by its budgetary decision to reduce the direct tax to the tune of Rs 11500 crore while simultaneously increasing the burden of indirect tax by Rs11300 crore. The budget reduces surcharge on corporate taxes, but does not bother to reduce the custom duty and excise duty on crude oil and petroleum products, despite the fact that crude oil price has reached alarming levels in the international market and govt. is poised to increase price of petroleum product in regular frequency, creating cascading impact on inflation and price rise. CITU demand that govt. should announce immediately abolition of customs duty on crude oil import and reduction of excise duty in petroleum products.

CITU also deplores the single track focus of the budget on reduction of subsidies on basic essentials like food, kerosene, diesel, LPG, fertilizers etc through direct and indirect means while the budget fails to mention any single actionable step for recovering black money as well as huge tax arrears, both within and outside the country, contain tax evasion and other forms of tax leakages.

In the face of explosion of numerous events of corruption involving the entire governance, the budget sought to skip over the entire issue cavalierly except giving lip service about probity in public life.

The budget while being eloquent on GDP growth, is completely silent on the employment generation commensurate to GDP growth. It only encourages and incentivises the Indian Corporates for investing and creating assets and employment abroad, while millions of unemployed youth in the county are yearning for decent job within country.

CITU records its strong opposition to the move for complete deregulation of financial sector through encouraging private banks, liberalizing speculative FII participation in mutual fund schemes, deregulation and liberalized foreign participation in insurance sector and privatization of insurance and pension sector through various legislative and executive measures as proposed in the Budget. All these moves are going to create disastrous consequences for the national economy, if not resisted resolutely through united countrywide action. CITU also reiterates its strong opposition to disinvestment of PSU shares, unleashed by the UPA-II govt with greater vigour, and pledges to resist such disastrous move as reflected in the Budget.

In totality, the Union Budget (2011-12) reflects continuity of the same neoliberal corporate captive anti-people policy regime spreading miseries for the millions to benefit handful of corporate and moneyed class, both domestic and foreign. CITU calls upon the working people to heighten its united resistance to such anti-people policy regime.

Union Budget 2011-12

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

The Union Budget 2011-12 fails to address the serious problems affecting the people and the economy. The Budget comes at a time when people are suffering due to high inflation and relentless rise of food and fuel prices. In this backdrop, the massive Rs. 20000 crore cut in major subsidies for 2011-12 on fuel, fertiliser and food, from what was spent in 2010-11 (Revised Estimates), come as a rude shock. The cut in food subsidy by Rs. 27 crore clearly exposes the Government's lack of willingness to enact a meaningful food security legislation. The Finance Minister's stubborn refusal to reduce excise and customs duties on petro products and obduracy in moving away from the ad-valorem duty structure, coupled with the cut on fuel subsidy by Rs. 15000 crore, indicates massive increase in fuel prices in the days to come. This exposes the anti-people character of the Government.

The direct cash transfer programme announced for implementation from next year is a smokescreen for this subsidy cut. The current BPL lists exclude large sections of the country's poor. Direct cash transfers to a small section of beneficiaries cannot substitute for the subsidised provision of essential commodities like food and fuel. The rise in kerosene prices will immediately affect the poor.

The Budget has provided relief of Rs. 11500 crore in direct taxes, while proposing to mobilise an additional Rs. 11300 crore through indirect taxes, which will inevitably be passed on to the consumers. This is a regressive taxation regime, which enriches the rich while burdening the ordinary citizens. As per the Statement of Revenue Foregone, total tax concessions reached over Rs. 5 lakh crore in 2010-11, with corporate tax exemptions totalling over Rs. 88000 crore. The tax-GDP ratio, which had reached almost 12% in 2007-08, has declined since then to around 10% in the current Budget. At a time when income inequalities are rising fast, a decline in tax GDP ratio shows the waning commitment towards redistributive policies and a throwback to trickle down economics.

No concrete steps to unearth the huge sums of black money stashed in offshore tax havens were announced. The DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) with Mauritius, through which 42% of FDI inflows into India is routed, is the biggest conduit of tax evasion by MNCs and Indian corporates. Rather than plugging such channels, the Finance Minister is signing more tax avoidance treaties with other countries.

With resource mobilisation taking a back seat, Plan Expenditure as percentage of GDP in 2011-12 will decrease from what was spent last year. The Budget Support for the Central Plan in 2011-12 has increased by only 12% over 2010-11, while nominal GDP has increased by 14%. Such squeeze in real expenditure marks all the major developmental heads. The flagship schemes of the social sector have been neglected in the budget and social sector spending is slated to fall in real per capita terms. The allocation for NREGS has fallen by Rs. 100 crore, despite a claimed increase in the wages. The provisions for ICDS are far below the estimates for full universalization as directed by the Supreme Court.

Agricultural growth has been below 3% on average in the first four years of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, despite a target of 4%. It is shocking in this backdrop that the budget provision for the Agriculture Department has been cut from last year. The allocations for the welfare of women, minorities, dalits and tribals are thoroughly inadequate. Capital expenditure is projected to fall from 1.7 per cent of GDP to only 1.2 per cent, which will affect basic infrastructure for the people.

The announcement of impending legislations directed at liberalizing the sensitive financial sectors like insurance, banking and pension funds is meant to appease foreign finance capital. Further liberalization of rules for Indian Mutual Funds accessing foreign investors would also facilitate the flow of speculative finance into the economy. Greater inflows of such speculative finance at a time when India's current account deficit is widening, does not augur well for the health of India's economy.

Overall, the Budget reflects the abandoning of the aam admi agenda by the UPA-II Government and its pursuit of an aggressive neoliberal agenda. The Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) calls upon the people to strengthen resistance against these neoliberal policies.

Left Front sweeps village committee polls

The ruling Left Front emerged victorious in the village committee elections in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council by winning 473 of the 527 village committees.

The Congress and its ally the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), a tribal party, bagged 56 committees which is better than the last village committee elections held in 2005 when they had secured 23 village committees. The other committees were won by independents.

The tribal council which constitute two-third of the State territory is home to the tribals that form one-third of the State's population.

It came into being in 1985 under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to provide more autonomy to the backward tribals and facilitate economic development in the area. CPI (M) State secretary Bijan Dhar said it was a people's mandate for peace, development and good governance.

Indian Railways on Ruinous Path

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

The CPI (M) considers the Railway Budget presented in parliament today as a fraudulent exercise aimed at window dressing the pathetic state of Railway finances and announcing sundry projects, which will never take off the ground. The Railways is actually facing a financial crisis. There is no increase in freight earnings this year despite the GDP growing at over 8%. The safety record is abysmal with a spate of accidents leading to deaths of over two hundred people in the past one year. Passenger amenities like food and cleanliness have deteriorated sharply, with punctuality hitting a new low.

The operating ratio of 92.1 mentioned in the Budget for 2010-11 is not a credible estimate and conceals the much higher actual operating ratio. This has been done by playing with the figures. The freight loading target this year had to be lowered by the Railway Ministry by 20 million tons (as admitted by the Railway Minister in her speech), which exposes the inefficiency of Railway operations. Despite this, the freight earnings have been retained at the same level of last year in the Budget. This results in a higher level of traffic receipts than what will actually accrue. Moreover, dividend liability committed for the year 2010-11 fell short by Rs. 1700 crore. All this has been done to artificially inflate the operating ratio, raising questions about the credibility of the entire accounting process.

The Budget claims an increase in the annual Plan Outlay to Rs. 57630 crore in 2011-12 from Rs. 40314.93 crore spent in 2010-11. It is noteworthy, that bulk of this is to be financed through increased funds from the union budget (Gross Budgetary Support) totaling Rs. 20000 crore (up from Rs. 15800 crore last year) and market borrowings of Rs. 20500 crore by the IRFC (up from Rs. 10100 crore last year). On the other hand, investment from Railways internal resources are budgeted to go down by Rs. 300 crore compared to last year. This clearly shows that Railways own resources are going to deteriorate further even as it draws more resources from the general budget and increase its indebtedness, ruining its financial health further in the long-term.

The Railway Budget of 2010 had announced numerous projects, from world class stations, to railway coach and loco factories, wagon and axle units, power plants, auto hubs, sports complexes, hospitals and so on. It is clear from Budget 2011, that these announcements were mere gimmicks which have either been recycled this year or conveniently forgotten. Announcements of projects without any specific plan outlay or time schedule amounts to a farce. Railway Budget 2011 is replete with such farcical announcements at the cost of the credibility of an institution like the Indian Railways. The 6 high speed passenger corridors announced in 2010 Budget and forgotten this year is a prime example.

The cavalier manner in which the Railway Minister has claimed an improved performance in railway safety through statistical jugglery, despite the death of 216 persons in railway accidents over the past one year, reflects her lack of concern for the lives of ordinary people. Her promise to install anti-collision devices (ACDs) in three railway zones in 2009 Budget is yet to be realised. And yet she has promised to extend the ACDs to another 4 railway zones. There is no mention of the Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) in this Budget, whose implementation was promised last year!

Rather than explaining her inaction in the filling of 1.75 lakh Group C and D posts in railways and 13000 posts in RPF, which have been lying vacant for the past many years, the Railway minister has made another empty promise. In fact, total employee strength of the Indian Railways has come down by 24600 from March 2009 to March 2010, totaling 1361519 as per the Indian Railways Annual report 2009-10 (not 14 lakhs as repeatedly claimed by the Railway Minister).

It is clear that under the stewardship of the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Indian Railways is on a ruinous path. Is the Prime Minister allowing this to happen due to “compulsions of coalition politics”?

Anganwadi workers dharna at Delhi

More than 20000 anganwadi workers and helpers from all over the country participated in a massive dharna near Parliament 24th February 2011. A presidium comprising representatives of all the constituent federations conducted the proceedings.

In addition to the leaders of the federations of the anganwadi employees, the leaders of the central trade unions also addressed the gathering. Despite the claims of robust economic growth, India has the dubious record of having around half of the malnourished children in the world. The government of India has not made adequate financial allocations for Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a flagship programme of the government of India for the development of children below 6 years of age, the invaluable future human resources of the country. While the revised plan outlay for ICDS in the 11th Five Year Plan was Rs. 72, 877.52 crores, the budgetary allocations for the four years of the 11th Plan period, including in the last Budget, were Rs 26,998 crores, which was only around one third of the requirement.
The anganwadi workers and helpers, who are the most important functionaries in the effective implementation of the ICDS, are among the most exploited sections of the workers today. Despite working for 30 – 35 years, they are not recognised as government employees; they are not paid minimum wages. While the prices of all the essential commodities have skyrocketed, their meagre remuneration has not been increased by the Government of India since the last three years. Thousands of anganwadi employees are being forced out from their jobs on attaining 58 years without any compensation. They do not get any social security benefits like pension, gratuity etc.

The speakers highlighted the following demands of the anganwadi employees - • Immediate enhancement of the remuneration of the anganwadi employees ensuring minimum wages applicable to skilled workers and semi skilled workers to the anganwadi workers and helpers respectively
• Pension, gratuity, PF and other social security benefits to all the anganwadi employees
• Regularise anganwadi workers and helpers as Grade III and Grade IV employees
• Dearness Allowance automatically linked to the Consumer Price Index
• Stop privatisation of ICDS in any manner including handing it over to NGOs, SHGs, Corporates etc; the government should take the full responsibility of implementation of ICDS
• Convert all mini anganwadi centres into regular anganwadi centres
• Ensure proper infrastructure facilities including pucca buildings, drinking water, toilets etc in all the anganwadi centres; Ensure provision of good quality food in adequate quantities to be freshly cooked and distributed in the anganwadi centres
The leaders demanded that at least Rs 25000 crores be allocated in the ensuing Budget for ICDS including for the immediate increase in the remuneration for the anganwadi employees and providing them pension and gratuity.
All India federation of Anganwadi workers and helpers (CITU) president Neelima Moitra, General Secretary Com. Hemalatha, Joint Secretary A R Sindhu led the rally.

CITU Congratulates the Participants in the Massive Rally

Centre of Indian Trade Unions congratulates the more than five lakhs of participants in the historic March to Parliament to-day (23rd February) at the call of Central Trade Unions for making this rally the biggest ever mobilization in the Capital City. Raising the basic policy issues of the working people and all sections of downtrodden, the Trade Unions have sent a powerful message to UPA-II Government that it should change its policies so as to end the deprivations of the working people.

The rally has seen men and women from all sections of workers – unorganized sector, organized sector which included both private and public section, central and state government employees and employees from Bank, Insurance, Telecom and Defence production. Largest sections of participants were from the unorganized sector – construction, bricklin, hamalis, autorikshaw, driver, beedi worker, handloom and powerloom workers etc.

The anger among the people in the rural and urban parts of the country was reflected by this great mobilization demanding justice to the working people. CITU congratulates every section for their role in making this programme a great success. CITU assures the people of the country that it will carry forward the unity of Central Trade Unions and National Federations and continue the struggle for our demands.