People's Democracy

 ORISSA

  CITU Holds 9th State Conference

 Lambodar Nayak

THE Orissa state unit of the CITU held its 9th conference at the Open Theatre Ground of NTPC’s thermal power plant at Talcher on November 1 and 2, with 271 delegates and 9 observers representing almost all industries in the state participating in the conference. CITU general secretary Dr M K Pandhe inaugurated the conference.

On November 1, a big and impressive procession of workers, preceding the conference, moved through the workers’ colonies of the thermal power plant, NALCO and the coal fields; a good number of workers attended the rally held at South Balanda Coal Field's market area after the procession.

Addressing the rally, Dr Pandhe at the outset congratulated the workers of the alluminium giant NALCO for successfully resisting, through their united struggle, the NDA government 's drive for privatisation. Dr Pandhe noted that about 6 lakh industries have been closed and 12 lakh people are out of job in the country. The economy of the nation has been reduced to a shambles; the liberalisation policy of the government has opened the door for foreign goods, leading to widespread closure of our own industries. Day by day the market for Indian goods outside the country is getting squeezed and we have suffered losses to the tune of Rs 40 thousand crore. Due to wrong taxation policies, the Indian goods are becoming dearer while the foreign goods are coming cheap. The agriculture in our country is not showing any advance and suicide by peasants is taking place throughout the country. Pandhe further noted that the central government is drastically reducing the regular jobs and introducing the contract system. He noted that all the unions are opposing the policy of privatisation and casualisation of jobs, and that preparations for a big nationwide strike struggle is on against the Supreme Court judgement against the right to strike. He also pointed out that coal workers are being neglected again and again by the government, against which a massive demonstration is planned on December 17 before the Coal India head office at Kolkata.

The meeting was also addressed by CITU leader from centre, Dev Roye, who expressed surprise over the central and state governments’ lethargy over the closure of a big FCI fertiliser plant at Talcher though it could have been converted to a thermal power plant by the NTPC with little effort. Dev Roye asked the Talcher workers and democratic people to seriously take up this issue. The meeting was also addressed, among others, by the veteran Orissa freedom fighter Bichhanda Charan Pradhan, eminent local personality and reception committee chairman R C Nanda and state CITU state leaders Sivaji Patnaik, Lambodar Nayak, Bishnu Mohanty, Janardan Pati and G C Satpathy.

After the general secretary placed his report in the delegates session, 68 delegates participated in the discussion. The report and discussions centred on the issue of globalisation and its effects on the state’s economy, on industries in particular and on the society at large. The BJD-BJP state government has pushed the state’s economy into a whirlpool of debt. Privatisation of electricity has led to a spate of closure of industries, both in public and private sectors. The World Bank-DFID are now deciding every single detail of the state budget. The state government is effecting a large-scale reduction of jobs under the DFID’s direction. About 35 thousand daily rated government employees, who did their jobs for decades, have been thrown out. The multinationals are systematically looting the rich mineral and water resources of the state through the privatisation drive. In the face of this offence, the success of united struggle against the NALCO’s intended privatisation and its lessons were also discussed in the conference.

The discussion also reviewed the CITU activities during the last three years. It was decided to improve functioning in every sphere and raise the CITU membership to one lakh by the next conference. The conference adopted several resolutions including those on the privatisation of industries, unemployment and people’s movement for a thermal plant in place of the Talcher fertiliser plant.

The conference elected a 50-member state committee that, in turn, elected a 15-member state secretariat. Lambodar Nayak was re-elected president, Bishnu Mohanty as general secretary and Dusmanta Das as treasurer.