People's Democracy

100 Days of TMC-Congress Govt:

 A False Start

From Our Special

Correspondent in Kolkata

WHAT are the high points of the first 100 days of the TMC-Congress government in West Bengal? 

·       Organised terror against the opposition, which has claimed lives of 33 Left Front activists, injured hundreds; 684 women were assaulted physically, 508 molested and 23 raped; nearly 40,000 had to leave their homes under threat. An unprecedented extortion campaign is going on in villages.

·       Campaign of political vendetta, using state police forces for that purpose. More than 1500 false cases have been registered against the CPI(M) leaders and activists. CPI(M) leaders, including MLA and former minister Sushanto Ghosh, have been put in prison. CPI(M) state committee members have been targeted too.

·       Land grabbing and comprehensive attack on panchayats.

·       A unique budget without budgeting, without finalisation of sources of revenue and expenditure.

·       Refusal to discuss budgets of important ministries, including home, in the assembly. The chief minister herself is in-charge of these ministries.

·       Reversal of decisions, hastily announced by the chief minister and other ministers. One of the more important one is retarding on the re-establishment of the legislative council in the state.

·       Lots of nominated committees with the TMC and pro-TMC people, presiding over the jeopardising of normal governmental functions.

DARJEELING

·        As per the government’s claim, peace has been restored in Darjeeling! But the reality is that the process of peace restoration, initiated by the government, has been done at the cost of recognising the term Gorkhaland.

·        The process to establish Gorkhaland Territorial Area has started. The survey will be conducted in order to include the new areas into the said territory.

SINGUR

·        The Singur problem remains and has become much complicated with the new government’s decision to return the lands to the unwilling farmers with the force of the special legislation. The whole controversy has aggravated since it has gone to the court.

JANGAL MAHAL:

·        The chief minister had earlier declared that there will be 23 new ration shops in jangal mahal area to ensure food distribution. Unfortunately, not a single one has been established in West Midnapore district, where 11 of 23 blocks of jangal mahal are situated.

·        The government has a proposal for the creation of 10,000 Special Police Officers to tackle the 'Maoist' situation in jangal mahal like the Chhattisgarh government. In this context the government has completely dumped the Supreme Court’s order against the creation of SPOs to tackle the 'Maoist' problems.

·        Meanwhile, the 'Maoists' have started to regroup.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT:

·  The performance of TMC-led government in the specific sectors like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is not only poor but also much lower than the performance made during the tenure of the Left Front government. The contrast with the tenure of the Left Front government can be easily seen. The government has claimed that a total number of 1 crore 59 lakh working days have been created whereas the same was 15 crore at the time of the Left Front government.

EMPLOYMENT:

·        The document, celebrating 90 days, published by the new government has proclaimed that it has already provided jobs for 2,79,286 people in its first months. The break up shows that out of those jobs 2 lakh jobs have been given in the private sector and the 79,286 have been provided in the government offices. The government did not bother to disclose the names of the private sector where the jobs have been given and the government sector break up reveals that most of the posts have been proposed and created. So, as yet the government has not provided any jobs.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

·        Most of the works cited in the book released by the TMC-led government are the repetition of the projects and works undertaken by the government of West Bengal during the tenure of the Left Front.

·        The modernisation of the Coochbihar Airport and the commencement of Kolkata-Coochbihar flight - in reality, the whole infrastructural work, was done during the time of the Left Front government and the project was waiting for its official inauguration.

·        The draft policy for the street vendors was also introduced during the time of the Left Front government, although it is falsely cited as a success of the new government.

·        A project of Rs 500 crore for job generation and a project of Rs 800 crore for building urban houses, has been falsely claimed by the TMC government as its success. They were also the projects taken up by the Left Front government.