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An Insult To The People Of Delhi: CPI(M)

THE Delhi state unit of the CPI(M) has lambasted the order of the union home ministry depriving the Delhi government of all administrative and legislative authority while vesting the same with the lieutenant governor. This, to the CPI(M), is an insult to the people of Delhi and a step that reduces the Delhi government to the status of a municipality. The measure will have to be fought tooth and nail, the state CPI(M) said.

Addressing a press conference on September 5, state CPI(M) secretary P M S Grewal charged that this was a "heinous attack on the rights of the states and exposes the authoritarian tendencies of the BJP-led central government." It is ironic that "while the Delhi BJP chief, Shri Madanlal Khurana, is shouting himself hoarse in pledging full statehood to Delhi if his party is elected in the 2003 assembly elections, the central government led by his party is divesting the state government of its already severely curtailed powers. Such anti-democratic attacks and hypocrisy cannot be tolerated," Grewal said.

Demanding immediate withdrawal of the order and dismissing all talk of a legal battle, he said this is a political decision that will have to be fought politically by going to the people and hitting the road on the issue.

The Delhi state CPI(M) would soon announce a planned agitation that would culminate in an industrial strike in Delhi. Grewal mentioned the brutal eviction drive against hawkers and stated that, in collusion with the central and state governments, the land mafia was trying to grab the land meant and earmarked for the hawkers. Another demand he made was that the single-point connection scheme for jhuggi-jhopri clusters must be cancelled as it was criminalising the entire distribution of electricity in the slums of Delhi. He said about 30 lakh slum-dwellers were at the mercy of criminal contractors who charge much higher rates than even allowed under the existing scheme. (INN)