People's Democracy

 CPI(M) Plunges Into Relief Work

RESPONDING to the CPI(M) Assam state committee call for providing relief to flood-affected people, all units of the Party and mass organizations along with  sympathisers plunged into the effort. Many are collecting funds, food material, medicines etc through out the state while some units are sending Party members to the flood affected areas to undertake relief work.

The state committee had expressed concern at the failure of state government in providing relief to the affected people and demanded to speed up rescue and relief operation on a war footing. The Party also conducted demonstrations protesting the failure of the state government.

The state and district level Party leaders have also been visiting the affected areas and sharing the woes and sufferings of the people. However, such visits are hamstrung by inaccessibility in the marooned areas.

Prasanta Chatterjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member, visited the worst hit Kamrup and Nalbari districts on July 18 and met the suffering people. He also addressed press conferences at Nalbari and Guwahati and stressed the need for adequate relief and rescue operations. He strongly felt the current wave of floods in Assam was a national disaster and needed massive financial and other assistance from the centre. Chatterjee also assured the people of Assam he would raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha. He already sent a letter to the prime minister on this issue.

The CPI(M) state committee has also demanded the state government to hold all-party meeting to discuss the havoc caused by floods and how effectively to provide relief. The state chief minister Tarun Gogoi had to convene a meeting on July 22. The CPI(M) was represented by state secretary, Hemen Das, and Uddhab Barman in the all-party meeting and placed concrete suggestions to meet the situation. The Party underscored the need for immediately drawing a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme to meet the challenges in the post-flood situation. The Assam government decided to form all-party relief committees to oversee proper distribution of relief materials among the flood victim. The committees would be formed one each at the state, district and sub-divisional level. The all party meeting also unanimously decided to put pressure on the centre with the absolute necessity of treating floods and erosions as a national priority and national problems and finding a durable and effective solution with a fixed time-frame.