Punjab CITU Launched Mass Contact Campaign

At the call of All India CITU Secretariat Punjab CITU launched mass contact campaign on 2nd July against the anti-people neo-liberal economic policies, illegal contract labour system, mounting attacks on basic trade union rights of the workers, violation of existing labour laws and in support of just and genuine demands of the working class such as: enhance minimum wages of the unskilled workers to Rs. 10,000/-, semi-skilled workers to Rs. 15,000/- and skilled workers to Rs. 20,000/- per month and MNREGA workers to Rs. 350/- per day. 

Regularise services of the workers who have been employed on contact basis against regular posts by abolishing contract labour system and to ensure equal wage for equal work in all the industrial units,  Government and semi-Government departments. Ensure basic trade union rights and implementation of labour laws. Ensure pension for all. Regularise ICDS and cover all Scheme Workers like Anganwari Workers and Helpers, Asha & Mid-Day meal workers under minimum wages Act, 1948. Ensure implementation of Punjab Government Notification dated 17th February’ 2012 giving direction to treat minimum wages as basic wage.

During the campaign public meetings at mass rallies were held at Birhan, Mahilpur, Raikot, Bathinda, Mansa, Mohali, Ropar, Asron, Banah Tonsa, Ludhiana, Barnala, Firozepur, Moga, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Ahmadgarh,, Dhuri, Rajpura, Patiala, Fazilka, Lehra Mohabat, Jagraon, Amritsar, Patran, Nangal and at the gates of several industrial units.
Public meetings and rallies were addressed by Comrade Raghunath Singh General Secretary Punjab CITU, Vijay Misra President Punjab CITU, Chander Shekhar Vice President, Jatinder Pal Singh Vice  President, Tarsem Jodhan General Secretary and Sat Pal Bharti President Lal Jhanda Punjab Bhatha Mazdoor Union, Dev Raj Verma  secretary Punjab CITU, Sucha Singh Treasurer, Ram Singh Sohian Vice President, Jagdish Chand Joint Secretary, M. S. Rauri, G. S. Bagi, Ranjit Singh, D. K.  Gora, Hanuman Parsad, Sukhwinder Lotte, Samar Bahadur, Gurbakhash Kaur all working committee members.

In his address Comrade Raghunath Singh told that CITU would further widen and intensify statewide mass agitation in support  of their just and genuine demands. Rejecting Punjab Government’s Notification proposing Rs. 5,200/- per month to unskilled, Rs. 6,000/- to semi-skilled and Rs. 8,700/- to skilled workers per month minimum wages he demanded from the Punjab Government to enhance minimum wages if unskilled workers to Rs. 10,000/-, semi-skilled workers to Rs. 15,000/- and skilled workers to Rs. 20,000/- per month, to regularize the services of  all contractual and casual workers who have been employed on contract basis against regular posts by abolishing illegal  contract labour system and to ensure equal wage for equal work to the contractual workers. He also demanded withdrawal of all false police cases registered against CITU leaders and activists and leaders and activists of other trade unions. During the campaign CITU succeeded in approaching nearly 15 thousands industrial,  MNREGA,  Brick Kiln, Forest, Construction, Transport, ASha & Mid-Day meal workers. On 9th July Rasta Roko action was also organized at five places. Everywhere the local press gave good coverage to our campaign. CITU has decided to continue this campaign up to 19th July.

CPI(M) to protest against price rise in westbengal

The State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for a sustained month-long campaign across West Bengal in August to highlight its demand for the incorporation in the Centre’s proposed Food Security Bill provision for a universalised public distribution system that ensures a monthly allocation of at least 35 kg of foodgrains per family at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg.

Demands like remunerative prices to farmers for their produce, reducing the prices of fertilisers and other agricultural inputs, and financial assistance for farmers who have committed suicide in the State are also being raised by the Left-backed peasant organisations during their on-going campaigns, the State Committee noted at its two-day meeting which concluded here on Sunday.

More than 60 farmers committed suicide because of agrarian distress ever since the Trinamool Congress-led government assumed power in the State in My 2011.

While the campaign on such matters would continue, more attention has to be paid on issues like the social security to those in the unorganised sector, the State Secretary of the CPI(M) Biman Bose pointed out at the meeting. The party would have to play a more active role in organising farmers as well as workers in other sectors, he said. The CPI(M) will organise law-violation programmes in the different districts on Monday and in Kolkata and Siliguri the next day to protest against the rise in prices of essential commodities and to highlight the need for protecting the democratic rights of the people, a statement issued by the party’s State Committee said.

SFI makes a clean sweep in Calicut university union poll

Students Federation of India (SFI) made a near-clean sweep in the Calicut University union elections  held on 7th of July, 2012 by winning nine of the 10 seats for which the polls were held. SFI candidates won in all the five Central Posts. SFI won all the seats except that of the district executive member from Malappuram which was won by the Kerala Student Union (KSU)-Muslim Students Federation (MSF) combine. SFI has been continuing its unbroken winning streak in the CU union elections since 2002.

The newly elected office bearers are: Chairman- M Sameesh ( Guruvayoorappan College, Kozhikode); vice chairman- Anson C Joy (Kerala Varma College, Thrissur); lady vice chairman- P Athira (NSS College, Manjeri); general secretary- C Anoop (Sree Krishna College, Guruvayoor) and joint secretary- P Lakshmi (Marthoma College, Chungathara).

The five university office bearers and five district executive members were elected by the 227 university union councillors from the colleges under the university in the five districts.

The CEC of SFI congratulates the students of Calicut University and Kerala SFI for registering such an emphatic victory braving and overcoming all sorts of malicious campaigns related with the murder of T.P.Chandrasekharan, unleashed by the Kerala Students Union and Muslim Students Federation with the help of right wing and corporate media.

This enormous victory is a tremendous source of inspiration for the entire democratic progressive student movement in the country. The valiant comrades of Kerala will go on to inspire all struggles fought against oppression, repression, dominance and vulgar campaigns. The entire rank and file of SFI is proud at this great victory.

The SFI CEC once again congratulates the students of Calicut University and the state unit of Kerala for registering such a massive win and making the entire organization proud.

CITU AP State Conference

Tripura chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar has said that there is a  distinct possibility of realignment of political forces in the country after the presidential polls in view of the current situation where both Congress and BJP are losing ground in many states. He asserted that only Left and democratic forces, which have consistently fought against neo-liberal policies, can be the real alternative to Congress and BJP.

Sarkar was addressing a huge public meeting in Hyderabad marking the successful conclusion of the 13th state conference of CITU. Sarkar said the regional political parties that are emerging in the states can grow stronger only if they are really serious about solving people's problems instead of supporting neo-liberal policies and if they do not indulge in political opportunism.

Sarkar said the country and its people are going through difficult times with spiralling price rise, agrarian distress, farmer suicides, faltering economy etc. The UPA government is steeped in unprecedented corruption involving lakhs of crores of rupees and this phenomenon is clearly a result of neo-liberal economic policies. Yet it is stubbornly refusing to provide any sort of relief to people in the form of universal PDS, remunerative procurement of crops etc. The government it appears is only acting in favour of monopoly corporate houses, money-lenders, blackmarketeers etc and leaving the farmers, workers, agricultural labour in distress. With the prime minister taking over as finance minister also, there could be intensified attacks on the working class in the coming period, he felt.

Expressing serious concern at the growing unemployment in the country, the Tripura chief minister said that as per some estimates the number of unemployed could be around 17 crore. With the agrarian sector also in the doldrums, more number are joining this lot. In view of this there is falling demand for industrial products leading to closure of industries and a further rise in unemployment. Sarkar cited how the central government was not filling up the nearly 40 lakh vacant posts in government. Moreover it is insisting on state governments also not to fill vacant posts or create new posts. The Left Front government of Tripura has disregarded this advice even risking cut in funds and is recruiting people into government jobs, he said.

Manik Sarkar concluded his speech by calling on CITU to lead united working class struggles to provide relief to the suffering common people and strengthen the Left and democratic alternative in the country.

CITU all India president A K Padmanabhan greeted the people in a short speech in Telugu. CITU secretary Dr K Hemalata said the central trade unions are contemplating holding of all India general strikes for more than one day in the coming period because successive one-day general strikes have not been able to pressurise the government against pursuing anti-people policies.

Among those who addressed the meeting included CITU newly elected president P Saibabu and general secretary R Sudha Bhasker, outgoing president S Veeraiah and others.

Earlier, a huge rally was taken out from Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Baghlingampally to Indira Park, the venue of public meeting.

AIDWA members lay siege to Nalgonda Collectorate

The Nalgonda district unit of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) on Friday lay siege to the Collectorate to focus attention on the problems of DWACRA groups, including non-release of ‘pavala vaddi’ and the promised inter-free loans.

Large number of women tried to force their way into the office and even attempted to  remove the barbed fence put up by the police, who were outnumbered.The road in front of the Collectorate was blocked by the agitators.

Problems

Swaruparani, AIDWA State leader, who led the protest, alleged that no self-help group had got ‘pavala vaddi’ benefits and not all eligible families were given the ‘Deepam’ connections. She charged the district administration of denying scholarships to all eligible students. She demanded that the ‘Abhayhastam’ scheme be continued.

Leaders of the district AIDWA Mallu Lakshmi, Prabhavati, Pramila were among those who took part in the demonstration. Hanumanth Reddy, DRO, came out of the office to receive a representation from a delegation.

(courtesy : The Hindu)

CPIM to picket Government offiices on July 12 in Kerala against inflation

The CPI(M) State secretariat has given a call for making the State-wide picketing of government offices on July 12 demanding food security and universal public distribution system (PDS) a success.

The secretariat said in a statement Friday that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had failed to control inflation that had reached an unprecedented level in the country. Never before had inflation reached a two-digit figure in the country since independence. This was mainly on account of the neo-liberal policies being pursued by the UPA government. The permission granted for speculative trading, hoarding, and wrong export policy had all added to the crisis.

The entry of corporate giants into the food sector, the lapses in increasing productivity, and low growth in the farming sector were also some of the main reasons that led to the crisis. The government’s policies had weakened the public distribution system. Without learning a lesson from the crisis, even now the government was trying to categorise the public as above and below the poverty line (APL and BPL). The Planning Commission recommendation that those with a daily income of Rs.26 in rural areas and Rs.32 in urban areas could not be deemed poor would deprive a vast majority of the benefits of the PDS.

The Central government policy to cut subsidy in farming sector had led to an increase in fertiliser prices. Still, the government had not taken any step to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendation that 50 per cent of the production cost should be included while fixing the floor- price of agricultural produce.

The previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had used the PDS and cooperative sector to curb inflation caused by the erratic policies of the UPA government. Since the United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power, the prices of essentials had gone up by 200 per cent. Kerala stood 17th in controlling prices as per the Labour Index Survey.

The CPI(M) has, among other things, demanded for the abolition of APL-BPL classification; introduction of universal PDS; provision of 35 kg foodgrains to all families at Rs.2 a kg; and for produce-price stability for farmers.

July 30-Aug 3 - CPIM Struggle for Food Security

Importance of the Struggle for Food Security

Prakash Karat

THE Left parties are conducting a joint campaign and movement on the issue of food security throughout the country in July-August. This movement is to demand a universal public distribution system to ensure food security for all citizens.

The demand for a food security law which will ensure the right to food for all people has become all the more urgent and necessary as there is no let-up in the price rise of food items and as the food inflation rate hovers around 10 per cent. India has the largest number of malnourished and undernourished people in the world. 

One would have thought that in such a grim situation, the UPA government would urgently take up the Food Security Bill pending before parliament. But it has become evident that the government has other priorities. 

HANKERING FOR FREE

MARKET ENTERPRISE 

The worsening economic situation has led to strident calls for the implementation of more neo-liberal measures. The economic slowdown is being attributed to the UPA-2 government’s failure to push through neo-liberal reforms. The economic advisors and the corporate media see the present impasse as the most opportune to prod the Manmohan Singh government into undertaking the very measures which have led to the crisis in the first place. The chorus of demands are coming in thick and fast: decontrol diesel pricing; open up multi-brand retail trade to FDI; stop harassing foreign investors and speculators with tax avoidance regulations; step up the disinvestment of shares in the public sector enterprises, and so on. 

That the UPA government is heeding to these demands became evident once again in the last few days. The prime minister has taken charge of the finance portfolio after the exit of Pranab Mukherjee on his becoming the candidate for the post of president. Immediately after assuming charge of the Finance Ministry, the prime minister met the officials of the ministry and told them: “We need to reverse the climate of pessimism. Revive the animal spirits in the country’s economy; there are problems on the tax front which need to be addressed.” The “animal spirits” is a refrain of the prime minister whenever he wishes to give a fresh thrust to free market enterprise. 

The advent of the prime minister to the Finance Ministry has led to two immediate steps being taken. The first is a re-look at the retrospective tax amendment passed in the finance bill during the last budget. This amendment enables the revival of the demand for capital gains tax on Vodafone to the amount of Rs 13,000 crore.   The amendment was cited as one of the main reasons for scaring off foreign investors and FII flows. Both C Rangarajan, the head of the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, have decried this step.  Though this has been passed by parliament, Ahluwalia had declared that it should be used in the rarest of occasions. 

The second step is the review of the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR). These are rules meant to check avoidance of tax on funds flowing into India utilising tax havens. This could have been used to check tax evasion by those utilising the Mauritius route. Due to strong opposition of the financial lobbies, the finance minister had announced that its implementation would be postponed by a year.  Now the effort is to scuttle it altogether. At the efforts of the prime minister and his economic advisors is to meet the demands of finance capital and speculators. The revival of investor sentiment and “animal spirits” is designed to appease these interests. For the rest, the talk of curbing the fiscal deficit and the runaway expenditure means austerity measures for the people. The demand to urgently cut subsidies on fuel and fertilisers is a corollary of this. 

DEMANDS OF

THE MOVEMENT

With such an outlook to revive the economy, measures such as the food security law are seen as populist and wasteful. The food security legislation was expected to be passed in the monsoon session of parliament. But there are no signs of this happening.  The Standing Committee of parliament looking into the legislation has not completed its work yet. The draft bill perpetuates the targeting of people into priority (BPL) and general (APL). This will automatically exclude 54 per cent of the families in rural areas and 72 per cent in the urban areas. The below-poverty-line (BPL) cardholders will have to pay Rs three per kg of rice when eight states are providing rice at Re one or two per kg for those in the BPL list.

The government is eager to please the foreign speculators and finance capital by further liberalising their entry and ensuring that their profits are not taxed while people of India are to suffer from hunger and malnutrition because the government cannot increase the food subsidy to provide for a public distribution system for all.  It is in this context that the Left parties’ movement for food security assumes importance. In the weeks to come, lakhs of people are going to be mobilised on the four demands of the campaign which are as follows:

1) No BPL or APL, we demand a universal public distribution system

2) 35 kg of foodgrains at not more than Rs two per kg every month for each family

3) Scrap the Planning Commission’s bogus poverty estimates as the basis for welfare rights

4) Implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations for a fair price and profit margin for farmers.

This movement will culminate in a five-day dharna from July 30 to August 3, 2012 at New Delhi during the monsoon session of parliament. All those who have concern for the welfare of the people and who consider the right to food should be a fundamental right for all citizens should extend their full support to this movement. 

CPI(M)’s Demands for Nagri Peasants in JHARKHAND

 ON June 29, the Jharkhand state secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) urges immediate intervention of the Arjun Munda government of the state for rehabilitation and resettlement of about 500 poor peasant tenants of Nagri in Ranchi district.

It also demanded that the state government must submit a petition before the Ranchi High Court for grant of stay on operationalisation of its earlier order to begin construction work on the acquired land at Nagri for a law university.

It may be noted that in 1958 the then state government of Bihar had acquired 227.71 acres of mostly tribal land at Nagri in Kanke block of Ranchi district, affecting a total of 153 tenants. A majority of 128 tenants at that time actively opposed this acquisition and refused to take compensation.

The state government did not use this acquired land during the last 54 years and about 500 peasant descendants of the tenants continued to keep the land in their possession and cultivate it. They depended on it for their livelihood.

Now after 54 years, however, the state government suddenly woke up to establish their right on the land for construction of an IIM, an IIT and a law university on this land. The Ranchi High Court passed order for forcible removal of these peasants treating them as encroachers and for early construction of the law university on this tribal land. The Supreme Court refused to admit the SLP filed on behalf of the land losers.

The state unit of the CPI(M) has been of the opinion that this British made antiquated Land Acquisition Act 1894 has been anti-peasant and ensures no legal right for the tenants. The party has therefore demanded its amendment. Two bills before the parliament --- the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007 and the associated Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill 2007 --- were allowed to be lapsed and replaced by a new one --- The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 --- which is now pending before the parliament.

Land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement have been accepted as a composite principle. It is in this context that the CPI(M)’s demand for rehabilitation and resettlement of Nagri peasant tenants and maintenance of status quo ante regarding the acquired land are justified. It is the state government’s responsibility to act on that basis, taking all parties on board, and move the Ranchi High Court for protecting the peasant tenants’ rights.

Left parties plan agitation in Haryana

The Haryana units of the CPI (M) and the CPI have decided to hold block level protest actions during July 16-27 all over the State on the issue of food security and other burning problems including failure of the recently set up thermal power plants in Khedar and Yamunanagar leading to acute power and water crisis.

CPI (M) State secretary Inderjit Singh and CPI State secretary Daryao Singh Kashyap told  that a joint meeting was held in Rohtak where it was underlined that the system of remunerative price of crop for farmers was entirely dependent on making the public distribution system fully universal rather than a targeted one as sought by the United Progressive Alliance regime in the proposed Food Security Bill.

The Left Parties have also demanded a thorough probe in the “most grave case of sub-standard machinery and equipment used in the thermal power plants in Khedar and Yamunanagar.

“Only through an impartial inquiry can the persons responsible for alleged corruption be severely punished,’’ Mr. Singh asserted.

The Haryana Government was not coming out with reasonable explanation even as the people were reeling under acute scarcity of power and water all over the State. “The continued silence of the government over the failure of the power plants is intriguing,’’ he added. Problems related to the MGNREGA, residential plots and worsening crime situation would also be focused upon during the forthcoming mass campaign, he added.

Courtesy : The Hindu

Drought in Maharashtra: Massive Mobilisation of 33,000 Rural Poor

Ashok Dhawale

Secretary, CPIM Maharashtra State Committee


Responding to the call of the CPI (M) Maharashtra state committee, over 33,000 rural poor comprising mainly peasants and agricultural workers held demonstrations on district collectorates and tehsil offices in 19 districts of the state on May 14, 2012. The vital issue taken up was that of the severe drought currently stalking Maharashtra and the utter insensitivity of the Congress-NCP-led state government in dealing with this issue affecting crores of people and also lakhs of cattle.

In Chandwad

GENESIS OF CHRONIC DROUGHT   

After dithering for weeks, in the beginning of May the state government finally admitted that 7753 villages in 15 districts were drought-affected. As always, this was also a gross underestimate, based on the ridiculously false ‘paisewari’ estimates of crop produce that are still based on the crop production criteria set up during the British colonial era!

Today, the situation in thousands of villages is grave. There is great scarcity and even complete absence of drinking water. Wells have run dry. Dams and reservoirs are depleted. There is lack of adequate fodder for cattle. Maharashtra is one of the worst states in the country so far as the implementation of MNREGA is concerned. Last year in 17 districts not even a single man day of work was provided. The wage paid is a pittance. The public distribution system is in shambles and is riddled with corruption and black-marketeering. To add to the woes of the drought-hit, load-shedding of power has increased to the tune of 12 to 16 hours a day in the rural areas.

In Jawhar

Drought is by no means a new phenomenon in Maharashtra. It recurs every three to four years. The number of tehsils that were earlier declared to be chronically drought-prone was 87. This figure has now crossed the 100 mark. Beyond setting up several Irrigation Commissions one after the other, successive state governments – be they of the Congress, Shiv-Sena-BJP or Congress-NCP - have done nothing. None of the recommendations of these Irrigation Commissions have been implemented.

For instance, some of these Commissions had said that with optimum utilization of both groundwater and surface water resources, 45 per cent of the land under cultivation could have been brought under irrigation. But what is the actual situation? As per the Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2011-12, when the state of Maharashtra was formed in 1960, 6.5 per cent of the cultivated area was under irrigation. It rose very gradually to 8.4 per cent in 1970-71, 12.3 per cent in 1980-81, 15.2 per cent in 1990-91, 17.8 per cent in 2000-01, and just 17.9 per cent in 2010-11. Dry land agriculture over 82 per cent of the area in the state has been suffering immensely as a result. It must be noted that the cultivated land under irrigation in India as a whole is 45.3 per cent.

In Parbhani

The nadir was reached in the last ten years. As part of the running battle between the Congress and the NCP (the NCP has long held the Irrigation portfolio in the state), chief minister Prithviraj Chavan declared recently that after spending Rs 70,000 crore on irrigation in the last ten years, the proportion of irrigated land increased by only 0.1 per cent. He announced that a White Paper on the issue would be published. This led to a war of words between both the parties in the ruling alliance.

Another significant issue concerns the massive escalation of irrigation expenses. The Irrigation Commissions in the early 1960s had opined that with an expense of 1,300 crore rupees, 30 per cent of the land could have been brought under irrigation by 1980. Today the chief minister says that a sum of 77,000 crore rupees would be required for the completion of incomplete projects! Needless to say, a significant part of this cost escalation is directly related to rising corruption at all levels. Now the rulers say that since such massive outlays are not possible, priority would be given to water conservation schemes. Nothing stopped them from doing so for the last several decades.

The third issue is the completely skewed nature of the distribution of irrigated water. It is well known that sugarcane is a water-guzzling crop. It is equally well known that Maharashtra is ruled by an alliance of the big bourgeoisie and the sugar lobby, predominantly from Western Maharashtra. As Kumar Shiralkar wrote recently in the CPI(M) state committee weekly ‘Jeevanmarg’: “In 1950, 45 per cent of irrigation water went to sugarcane. This rose to 60 per cent in 1987. In the last ten years, although Rs 70,000 crore spent on irrigation has come to naught, in 2011 the proportion of irrigation water going to sugarcane has reached 70 per cent. Today the average amount of water in the dams in the state is 23 per cent. In Vidarbha it is only 12 per cent. In 12 dams it is zero. In the medium and small irrigation projects it is between 11 to 15 per cent. It is in such a grim situation that 70 per cent of irrigation water is being given to cane, which occupies only 4.5 per cent of the cropped area.”

In Solapur

The last issue concerns the neo-liberal prescription - privatization of water resources and diversion of water to the rich in the cities and to SEZs, at the expense of the countryside. As a major step towards privatization, the Maharashtra Water Resources Bill was hurriedly passed and in 2005, the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority was set up. Since the state government claims that it has no money to set up or complete irrigation projects, the policy of allowing private players in this sector began in right earnest, with all the attendant ill-effects on water-users.

Simultaneously, a drive began to divert scarce water resources from the rural areas to the uncontrolled expansion of the cities to cater to the interests of the builder lobby, and to SEZs. It was this same drive that led last year to the peasant resistance and police firing at Maval in Pune district, which killed three farmers, including a woman. It is now proposed to build as many as ten dams by displacing thousands of Adivasis and others from several villages in the Thane and Raigad districts adjoining Mumbai. Thane district, which has some of the largest dams and water reservoirs in the state, has only 2 per cent of irrigated land and there is great scarcity even of drinking water in several tribal-dominated tehsils.

On the other hand, it has been reported that Mukesh Ambani’s new 27-storey residence ‘Antilia’ in Mumbai, built at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore, is provided 60 lakh litres of water per month! While most of the state is in darkness due to power load-shedding (which is itself a direct result of the power privatization policy of the ruling classes that led to the Enron fiasco, and is now being compounded by the Jaitapur nuclear power project drive), the monthly electricity bill of this modern-day Ambani palace is to the tune of Rs 70 lakh! This is only one instance amongst many in Mumbai.

STRUGGLE AGAINST DROUGHT

The CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee, which met on April 29, decided to launch an independent struggle on the issue of drought with two objectives in mind. The first was, of course, to ensure that immediate relief in the form of drinking water, employment, ration grain and fodder reached the people and their cattle. Towards this end, a charter of demands was prepared by the state committee. The second was to highlight the bankrupt ruling class policies briefly outlined above that had led to plunging the state in a chronic drought situation over the last several decades.

In Talasari

The two districts where the biggest mass actions were held were Thane and Nashik districts. Over 12,000 people stormed 7 tehsil offices in Thane district and over 11,000 people stormed 9 tehsil offices in Nashik district. In Thane district, the people gheraoed government offices in four tehsil centres and did not move until the authorities gave written assurances on their demands. At Igatpuri in Nashik district, over 500 people blocked the Mumbai-Agra National Highway.

In the Akole tehsil of Ahmednagar district, which hosted the Party state conference in March, over 3,000 people were mobilized in several village level actions. In the South Solapur tehsil of Solapur district, over 2000 people led a road blockade. In Parbhani district, a 1500-strong demonstration marched to the district collectorate. In Hatkanangale in Kolhapur district, a 1000-strong demonstration was held. In Nandurbar district, road blockades were organized in four tehsils, and nearly 400 people were arrested.

Similar actions took place in districts like Nanded, Beed, Jalna, Aurangabad, Hingoli, Amravati, Buldana, Jalgaon, Satara, Sangli and Raigad districts. Special mention must be made of demonstrations held by the Party in the urban centres like Mumbai, Nashik, Jalna and Aurangabad, where the working class raised the demand of the peasantry for drought relief. The actions in Solapur, Kolhapur and Parbhani districts also mobilized the working class along with the peasantry. In Pune, a Convention on Water was organized by left and secular parties.

All these mass actions succeeded in wresting concessions and immediate action from the government authorities for drought relief. Most of these actions were well covered by both print and electronic media, some of whom reported that it was only the CPI(M) among all other political parties in the state that took up concerted cudgels against the severe drought situation in the state.