DURING MUNICIPAL ELECTION-2010 MAMATA BANERJEE PROMISES TO ABOLISH TAX ON WATER. WHY SHE DID NOT DO IT DURING HER PERIOD FROM 2000 TO 2005?

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FACT BEHIND "POLITICAL CALCULATION" OF MAMATA BANERJEE

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INFORMATION SPEAKS

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INSANE MAOIST BUTCHERS OF “MAINSTREAM” SLAIN INNOCENT VILLAGER ORPHANING HIS WIFE & DAUGHTER IN THE NAME OF REVOLUTION

WIFE AND DAUGHTER BESIDE THE DEAD-BODY OF HARIPADA SINGHA ON BASANTPUR ROAD IN DAHIJURI VILLAGE OF JHARGRAM, WEST BENGAL ON 05-05-2010. HARIPADA SINGHA WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED BY THE PERVERTED AND INSANE MAOIST COMRADES OF ARUNDHATI ROY, MAHASWETA DEVI, MEDHA PATKAR, “PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES” (PUCL), “PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS”(PUDR), ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS (APDR) AND OTHER SO-CALLED INTELLECTUALS AND HUMAN RIGHT ORGANISATIONS

DIFFERENTLY ABLED PERSONS DEMAND RIGHTS AS EQUAL CITIZENS

On April 20 morning, a delegation of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled met the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and submitted a memorandum listing nine pressing demands facing the disabled community. The text of the memorandum is given below:

THE National Platform for the Rights of Disabled Persons represents various organisations working among different sections of the disabled in the country.

Thousands of disabled persons and their guardians have gathered in a dharna in the capital today, April 20, to raise their voice in support of the rights and demands of the disabled. Specifically, while raising the demands of all disabled persons we want to highlight before you the terrible plight of the economically and socially disadvantaged among the disabled, the poor, the scheduled castes and tribes.

The basic issue is that of approach of the government and we request you to consider our demands not as an act of charity but as fulfilment of entitlements and rights as equal citizens of India. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Disabled (UNCRPD) which enjoins the government to ensure minimum rights and livelihood to its disabled citizens.

We give below for your kind consideration our minimum charter for Social and Economic Rights and Justice for Disabled which was adopted in a national convention in February this year.

CHARTER OF DEMANDS

1) A comprehensive social security system for all persons with disabilities and their families, including Antyodaya cards to all disabled persons.

2) Free health care for all disabled in all hospitals.

3) Amend the RTE Act to include teachers and professionals. Continuation and increase of grants to special schools.

4) Identification of jobs for the disabled immediately. Special recruitment drives each year to fill the vacancies including backlog within a stipulated time.

5) Issuance of a Universally Valid Identity Card, which would be valid throughout the country and accepted by all departments & institutions.

6) Provision of concessions in all local trains, continuing the unreserved bogey for the disabled, extension of e-booking facility for the disabled.

7) Replacing the current Persons with Disabilities Act (1995) in consonance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and harmonising other laws.

8) Proper enumeration of the persons with disabilities.

9) Setting up of a separate ministry for disability affairs.

The organisations associated with the memorandum and the dharna preceding it included the Pashchimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Samiilani, Kolkata; Differently Abled Persons Welfare Federation, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Karnataka Rajya Angavikalara Mattu Palakara Okkota, Karnataka; Jharkand Vikalanga Morcha, Jharkhand; Tamilnadu Association for the Rights of all Types of Disabled and Caregivers and Vibhinna Prathiba Vanthula Hakkula Vedika, Andhra Pradesh. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, MP, Accompanied the delegation. (INN)

Courtesy: People’s Democracy dated 25-04-2010

KOLKATA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION (KMC) ELECTION: LF CANDIDATES ANNOUNCED

KMC ELECTION: LF CANDIDATES ANNOUNCED

LEFT Front chairman Biman Basu announced early in the afternoon of April 17 names of the candidates put up by the Left Front for the corporation polls of the metropolis to be held on May 30.

The CPI(M) has put up 96 candidates, CPI 14, FB 11, RSP 10, M-FB, SP, DSP, RJD (LF supported) one each, and BBC and RCPI-- one each.

There are 92 new candidates or 65 per cent of the total. Most of the candidates are young. There are 67 women candidates who have been put up in seats over and above those reserved for women. Biman Basu said that the Left Front was satisfied with the working of the corporation in the present term that had started on and from 2005.

The present mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is a lawyer of note, is not contesting the polls this time, and Biman Basu clarified to say that the post of a legal authority was being thought of about him.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy dated 25-04-2010

CPI (M) SEEKS SPECIAL PACKAGE FOR TRIBALS

BRINDA KARAT TOURS TRIBAL AREAS IN AP - Ch Narasinga Rao

BRINDA Karat, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and MP, has demanded from the central government a special package for tribal people of the country which would cover issues of housing, special schemes for tribal women, self-help groups, compensation for the loss of livelihood in the collection of forest produce, and fair wages for their labour and fair price for their forest produce.

The CPI (M) leader was on a four-day tour of tribal regions in Andhra Pradesh recently to study the living conditions of the tribals. This is being done in the run-up to a National Convention on “Tribal Rights” that is scheduled to be held under the aegis of the CPI (M) central committee at New Delhi in June 2010. She is also touring the states of West Bengal, Kerala, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Maharashtra.

During her tour, Brinda Karat addressed a number of big public meetings as also small group meetings of local tribal people in the tribal areas of Srikakulam,Vizianagaram Visakhapatnam and Khammam districts. She spent time with many tribals of interior tribal villages and spoke to them about their conditions.

SRIKAKULAM AND VIZIANAGARAM DISTS

In her first leg of tour, Karat visited the tribal areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. In the tribal villages of Bhadragiri and Kurupam area, which are faced with the menace of wild elephants attacking humans? She met the family members of the victims who died in the wild elephants' attacks and expressed her sympathy. She demanded that the state government must give adequate compensation to the victim families as also provide a job to at least one member of each such families.
She then interacted with the tribal people of the area and enquired about their living conditions and economic conditions. The majority of them complained about the NRGEA scheme being not properly implemented. Later, addressing the tribals, Brinda Karat demanded from the government immediate hike in the daily wages being paid in the tribal areas under the scheme because the tribals have to trek long distances from their hamlets to come to the work place. Also because the working conditions in these areas are much worse than the plain areas. She also demanded that pattas of land must be issued to the tribal people immediately. She assured them that these issues will be raised in the parliament by the CPI (M).

ILLEGAL BAUXITE MINING

Brinda Karat extensively dealt with the illegal bauxite mining issue during her visit to Jarrela village of G K Veedhi mandal in Vishakapatnam district. Addressing a public meeting organised by A P Girijana Sangham here, she said that both the central and state governments are not caring about the lives of poor and innocent tribal people who are exposed to the dangers of illegal bauxite mining. “It is a totally illegal act to allow mining of bauxite in the Visakha agency area as all laws have been violated. The National Environment Appellate Authority and leaders at Delhi should change their blinkered vision and see what is really happening here. They should come down and listen to what people are saying”, she said evoking a huge roar from the crowd in local dialect 'STOP Bauxite mining'. The tribals, who are endowed with rich forests, will be displaced and forced to live a life of destitution, she added.

Karat attacked the government for deliberately not giving pattas to tribals in this area so that they can be thrown away from their lands without the need of paying any compensation or making any arrangement for rehabilitation. “This is the height of cunning being exhibited by an elected government. Is this democracy?” she questioned. She pointed out how no consent was taken from the tribal people, and no Grama Sabha (villagers meeting) was conducted.

There are many villages in these north coastal Andhra districts abutting the agency area with majority population of tribals and they have not been included in the scheduled area. As a result, the tribals of these villages are deprived of all government schemes and are living in a wretched state. In most of these villages, the tribal lands are purchased by non tribals at meager rates as the 1/70 Act does not apply in non scheduled area. Karat demanded that all the non scheduled tribal villages should be merged into scheduled areas immediately.

The CPI (M) leader got a warm response from the tribal people, particularly tribal women, while touring the remote hamlets. Many were unable to hide their surprise at how an MP from Delhi could visit their remote village and talk to them about their problems even as their “own” MLA remains not to be seen.
The tribals greeted her warmly, and sat around her in Mampa village in Koyyuru mandal of Visakhapatnam, where the heroic freedom fighter Alluri Seetarama Raju was caught by the British and shot dead in 1924 for leading a tribal rebellion. She visited Tendu leaf fields in this village and enquired from the tribals about their sufferings.

OTHER ISSUES

The issues of cashew nut growers were placed before her at Makavaram village during her visit to cashew fields. The corrupt middle men cheat the tribals while purchasing forest produce during weekly bazaars. Brinda Karat attacked the government agencies like Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) for keeping mum at this corruption. She called on the tribals to be vigilant against such practices and fight against them forcefully. She infused confidence in them to build a powerful movement to protect their interests. Later, she visited Lambasingi village bazaar in Chintapalli mandal and enquired from many tribal women about the prices fetched for their forest produce. The tribals carry the collected forest produce like soapnut, Jack fruit., tamarind etc on their heads and trek more than 15 to 20 kms to the bazaars as there is no road connectivity, leave alone any road transport. The middle men offer a very meagre and unjustified price. If their produce is not sold, the tribals cannot buy essentials at the bazaar for the next coming week, and moreover they would have to carry the load back into forest. Hence, left with no option, the innocent tribals are forced to sell away their produce for that meagre price. Karat demanded the government agencies like ITDA and GCC must take all necessary steps to see that justice is done to tribal people in this regard. They must fix the minimum fair price and directly purchase from the tribals. She also demanded that the ITDA should sincerely implement all the schemes without any lacunae or loopholes.

The CPI (M) leader also demanded that the job of pruning of cashew trees must be included in the jobs of NREGA so that the tribal people will be provided with daily wage in days where there is no other job available. She further demanded that the rate of daily wage should be increased to Rs 100 a day in the tribal areas as the tribal people have to trek long distances to come to work place from their remote hamlets.

Brinda Karat demanded that adequate payments must be made for tendu leaf collection. She enquired from local tribal women about this job and they told, with tears in their eyes, how meagerly they are paid for each bundle of tendu leaf of 50. Out of every 10 bundles, the contractor pays only for 9 bundles saying that tenth bundle is meant for the goddess. The CPI(M) leader asked them to pressurise the GCC to immediately intervene and give fair price to tenduleafs packs or else face their wrath. She was also surprised to note that the price of shikakai was reduced from Rs 8 to Rs 6 per kg by the GCC in Lambasingi bazaar.

Overall, Brinda Karat's tour of these areas inspired the tribal people and infused confidence in them about fighting for their rights.

Among those who accompanied her during the tour included CPI (M) MP P Madhu, former MP, Midiyam Baburao who is also secretary of AP Girijan Sangham, Sangham leader K Lakshmana Murthy and CPI(M) district secretaries of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram Ch Narasinga Rao, C Tejeswara Rao and K Krishna Murthy.

Source: People's Democracy dated 18-04-2010

KOLKATA CORPORATION ELECTION - TAKE A JUDICIOUS DECISION ON WHICH SIDE YOU STAND

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