People's Democracy

GUJARAT

CPI(M) Hands Over Adopted Village To Quake Victims

ON November 7, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and leader of opposition in Kerala assembly, V S Achuthanandan, inaugurated Niruben Patel village in Gujarat. The village was constructed to rehabilitate the residents of Lavanpur village that was damaged in the January 1999 earthquake. This village is situated in Maliya taluka of Rajkot district.

The village has been named after late Comrade Neeruben Patel, who was a CPI(M) activist and had been a mayor of Bhavnagar.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat, CITU general secretary M K Pandhe, AISGEF general secretary Sukomal Sen and CPI(M) Central Committee member Jogendra Sharma also attended the inauguration ceremony. The ceremony began with an enthusiastic procession, led by folk dancers, to the village site. After Achuthanandan unveiled the plaque, a meeting was held on the spot. Attended by hundreds of people, it was chaired by Subodh Mehta, veteran CPI(M) leader in Gujarat.

After his brief remarks, Achuthanandan dedicated the village to the people of Lavanpur and explained how the CPI(M) had raised funds through a mass collection all over the country, totalling Rs 1.33 crore. In Kerala, Rs 91 lakh were collected for the purpose. Prakash Karat highlighted the fact that the CPI(M) was the only political party that had built an entire village, while other villages had been constructed through state governments and non-governmental organisations. M K Pandhe stated how, through the CITU, workers had contributed Rs 25 lakh for building a primary school and a community centre in the village.

The reconstructed village consists of 150 houses, a two-storey primary school, a community centre, a panchayat office, an Anganwadi, a park for children and an underground water tank.

Jogendra Sharma, who supervised the work on behalf of the Central Committee, thanked the contractors M/s A V Pandhe & Co for efficiently executing the work. He also appreciated the work of R S Yadav, an engineer from Delhi, who designed the earthquake-proof structures.

Leaders drew lots for allocation of individual houses to the allottees who are mainly salt workers. The entire ceremony was marked by happiness among the local people who appreciated the project undertaken by the CPI(M). (INN)