People's Democracy

JHARKHAND

CPI(M) Holds State Level Class Cum Workshop

THE Jharkhand state unit of the CPI(M) organised on October 3-4, 2013 a two day state level political class cum workshop, at Maithon in Dhanbad district of the state. Polit Bureau member Nirupam Sen inaugurated the programme.

In his inaugural speech, Sen said that contrary to other political parties wherein the members enter the political arena with vested self-interests, cadres in a communist party start their political life with the aim to serve the toiling masses --- the workers and the peasants and others. He said our goal is to change the society and to establish the rule of the worker-peasant alliance, and that the wholetimers of the party have a crucial role to play in this regard. This makes the political education of our wholetimers especially important, so that we can proceed on our route to the people’s democratic revolution.

CPI(M) state secretary Gopikant Baksi, while addressing the cadres, said that all committees of the party should make concrete plans for political and ideological development of their wholetimers. Ramchandra Thakur, convenor of the educational sub-committee of the party, read out a note on the importance of wholetimers in a communist party. He said that the wholetime workers are the backbone of our party organisation. Hence it is essential that they are equipped with ideological, political and organisational knowledge to enable them to organise and effectively lead the vast network of our party. In order to develop these abilities in our wholetimers, all party committees should work hard for proper selection, education and welfare of the whole-time party members.

The note also emphasised on the fact that while selection of wholetimers we should look into their class backgrounds and that preference should be given to comrades coming from the working class, peasantry, agricultural workers or socially backwards sections like tribals, dalits, minorities or women. At the same time, youth and students should be encouraged to become whole-time party members. Some guidelines should be evolved for proper development of the wholetimers, who in spite of all adversities that they are facing, have been serving the party with fullest dedication.

Seventy six wholetimers from 16 districts participated in the workshop, which was the first of its kind in Jharkhand. The workshop was presided over by Mohd Iqbal and Surjeet Sinha, state secretariat members and members of education sub-committee.

WORKSHOP OF ELECTED

MEMBERS IN LOCAL BODIES

A state level workshop of elected CPI(M) representatives in urban local bodies, panchayats and zilla parishads was held at Maithon in Dhanbad district on October 5, 2013. It came out in the workshop that though the people of Jharkhand enthusiastically participated in the panchayat elections in 2010, held after a span of 32 years at the directions of the Supreme Court, people still do not have any share in power. The representatives elected by the people in panchayats and zilla parishads have been given virtually no rights and even today the real control is vested in the hands of the bureaucracy. The elected representatives have been denied even their honorarium and conveyance allowance by the state government.

The representatives shared their experience that wherever they were successful in building strong mass organisations, they could provide some relief to the people due to the continuous pressure built on the government by the movements of people under the guidance of these mass organisations. It was also decided at the workshop that struggles should be intensified to build further pressure on the government so that it feels compelled to give due rights to the elected representatives of the three tier panchayati raj bodies and also their proper honorarium and allowances.

The workshop was inaugurated by G K Baksi, state secretary of the CPI(M). Kashinath Chatterjee, state secretary of the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), Parasnath Tiwary (member of the Burdwan zilla parishad in West Bengal and of Burdwan district committee of the CPI(M), spoke to the representatives, providing them with legal and technical knowledge for effective performance as people’s representatives. Krishnakant Mandal, CPI(M) state committee member, read out a note emphasising the problems faced by people’s representatives in the urban local bodies.

The workshop was presided over by Gemlina Soren, president of the Pakur zilla parishad, and Asho Shah, vice president of the Godda zilla parishad. The workshop was concluded by CPI(M) state secretariat member Prakash Viplav who said that the state committee would attempt to evolve strategies to counter the problems faced by the people’s representatives. It was also decided that such workshops would be held in all districts of the state.