People's Democracy

BENGAL Left Front took up the issue of industrial priorities in its meeting held at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on October 18. The meeting also resolved to commemorate the November Revolution on the morning of November 14 with placing of wreaths at the statue of V I Lenin in midtown Kolkata. Left Front chairman Biman Basu briefed the media about the deliberations.

Nirupam Sen, the Commerce and Industries minister in the Left Front government, briefed the Left Front leadership on the industrial scene in Bengal . He stressed the relevance of the Task Force already set up to look into and make recommendations on the focus of industrial development in the province.

Speaking on the important issue of revival of public sector undertaking units (PSU’s), Nirupam Sen informed the meeting about the conditions of the 70-odd PSU’s in Bengal. Some units were profit making while others were not. Some were in need of financial succour while others needed a regulated dose of modernisation.

For units that had developmental bottlenecks imposed on them by the changing nature of the economy at the national level and beyond, Sen would recommended that joint ventures might have to be set up.

He said that the state government would continue to play a major participatory role in the Haldia Petro-chem Corporation and Sen mentioned how the quality of the polymer and polymer-based products at the Haldia plant were of international quality and excellence. However, with falling of interest rates in India, the issue of equity participation might have to be given a second look, he opined.

Biman Basu clarified queries from the media on this issue by emphasizing the innate difference between the union government and the Bengal Left Front government. He pointed out that while the former was keen on disposing off profit-making PSU’s without an iota of hesitation, the latter always made it a point to revive them in every possible manner.

Anil Biswas, state secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M), officially released copies of two CPI (M) publications, one on the Party Conference, and the other on the attempts made to saffronise the education system in India. Releasing the books, Biswas said that the Party education was a continuous process, and several more CPI (M) publications in the form of booklets were lined for release in the days ahead.

The subjects that the booklets dealt with included imperialist globalisation, the origin and development of the Left Front, a better Left Front, and imperialism and terrorism as the twin enemies of mankind.

Biswas pointed out that the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) was actively engaged in the task of providing encouragement to the younger generation of writers and intellectuals for authoring various kinds of Party publications in the days ahead.