KARNATAKA

State Convention On Prices, Right to Food, Drought-Flood Relief

AFTER the successful national convention on the Right to Food and Against Price Rise organised by the CPI(M) at New Delhi, the Left parties have decided to intensify their movement against price rise and for the right to food and demanding drought/flood relief.

As part of this movement, the Left parties in Karnataka --- the CPI(M), CPI and Forward Bloc --- organised a joint state level convention at Bangalore on October 26. The convention was held at Puttanna Chetty Town Hall, Bangalore, with about 750 delegates attending it. The CPI(M) and the mass organisations led by the it constituted the solid base of the mobilisation.

The delegates from the CPI(M), who had arrived a day earlier, also attended a camp which made thorough going preparations for launching a struggle on the right to food in the state of Karnataka. The camp decided to organise village level struggle committees throughout Karnataka, making use of the base already laid through the struggle of unorganised workers in the state. The Kisan Sabha, Agricultural Workers Union, Democratic Youth Federation, Students Federation of India and Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane, apart from the CITU and the state level unions, together held a session to coordinate work among them at the mass level.

The Karnataka state convention was jointly inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury, MP, of the CPI(M); Divakaran (CPI minister from Kerala) and the West Bengal minister for agriculture, food and PDS who represented the Forward Bloc. As a part of the inauguration, these leaders jointly gave a bag of food and pulses to a family affected by floods.

Yechury, who addressed the convention first, laid bare the failure of the government policy and further explained the failure of the union government to meet the current emergency. He stressed that while substantial areas in Karnataka and Andhra had suffered heavy losses due to the havoc of rain and flood, a vast majority of the country is facing a severe drought. The government, which came to power promising the right to food, is actually trying to reduce its commitment from the 6.58 crore to 5.25 crore people even as it has raised the food prices from Rs 2 to Rs 3 for the BPL rationing. Yechury also explained the hypocrisy of the union government which is lowering the entitlement to food and yet calling it a right to food legislative enactment. He asserted that the Left parties would conduct a struggle to really enforce the right to food.

Speaking about the effects of the natural disaster of rain and flood havoc which destroyed the stored grains, the standing crops on one third of the cultivable land in Karnataka, five lakh homes and 226 lives, thousands of cattle and so on, Yechury called upon the delegates to work as a team to make relief and resettlement the main issue. He demanded that all work related to resettlement must be done through the NREGA programme and must avoid employing contractors for the job.

Divakaran, the food minister of Kerala, explained in detail the Kerala PDS system, the present difficulties and the efforts of the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala for ensuring food security. The West Bengal minister also explained the efforts being made by the Left Front government there in this regard.

The convention�s declaration was read by K Neela, CPI state secretariat member, and it was followed by a speech of the CPI(M) state secretary V J K Nair. The call of the convention included organisation of district, taluk and lower level conventions and a March to Bangalore for November 25, 2009. The latter rally will announce the further programme of action.

CPI state secretary Dr Siddana Gowda Patil and Forward Bloc leader G R Shivashankar also addressed the convention. A resolution was moved on behalf of the presidium on flood relief.

A presidium based on G V Sriramareddy of the CPI(M), Radha Sundaresh of the CPI and a Forward Bloc leader conducted the proceedings.

The convention�s demands charter was on the line of the all-India charter, with some of the demands modified to suit Karnataka�s specifics.