People's Democracy

DELHI

CPI(M) Condemns Crackdown On Protest

Demands Halt To Closure Of Industries

THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) Delhi state secretariat strongly condemned the central government and Delhi police for preventing the holding of a dharna at Teen Murti on October 5 against the large scale sealing of small-scale industries in the capital.

Among those who were prevented from leading the march and arrested by the Delhi police included V P Singh, former prime minister, Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Jogendra Sharma, CPI(M) central committee member, Vijay Virmani, leader of the Manufacturers Association, Saroj Dube, ex-MP and S B Bharadwaj, member CPI(M) Delhi state secretariat. They along with hundreds of owners and workers were taken to Chanakyapuri police station and detained for few hours. The police also stopped several tempos of the protestors from reaching the dharna venue.

“Prevention of the dharna and arrest of the protestors is nothing but an attempt to throttle the democratic right of protest against policies of the government that are against the interests of the people.  Such trends will not be tolerated”, asserted the Party in a statement issued on the same day.

Thousands of small-scale- industries are being sealed leading to loss of jobs for lakhs of workers and ruination of the owners of these units. The central and state governments could easily have regularised areas with 70 per cent and above industrial composition or used provisions of the Master Plan to set up new industrial areas. The Master Plan had envisaged 100,000 industrial units spread over about  50 dispersed industrial estates, including 18 new ones. Instead industrial estates have been developed  only in Narela for 1800 units and in Bawana for relocating only 16,000 units.

The CPI(M) Delhi state committee while extending its support to the agitation against attempts of the central and state governments to shut down over 100,000 industrial units  in the city had termed these closures as “a dastardly attack on the livelihood of lakhs of workers and small industrialists.”  It strongly condemned this inhuman drive and demanded its immediate halt.

In its latest statement the Party stated that the central government  could have set aside this pernicious decision of the Supreme Court through an ordinance.  “However, it appears that for the Congress the people and their interests are things to be remembered only at the time of elections. The central and state governments are playing out a charade of professed concern and promises by the dozen while letting the process of closure go on unchecked”, it said.

The CPI(M) demanded that the central and state governments immediately halt the sealing of small-scale industries and called upon the central government and its agency the Delhi police to desist from trying to suppress legitimate protest. (INN)