Left Front Govt And Tasks

DURING the first day of the state conference, Nirupam Sen placed the report: Left Front Government and Our Tasks.

Based on the economic reality of the country and on the limitations of the state government and its financial position, a list of priorities was drawn up.  Important among them were: generation of employment, universal primary education, health services, agricultural production and diversification, increase in industrial investment, reconstruction of state sector industries, transfer of more power to the people via decentralised planning, and private investment for the improvement of the infrastructure.

In the elections that took place to the state assembly, the Lok Sabha, the municipalities, and the Panchayats, the success that the LF achieved does prove that the CPI(M) has been able at least to a certain extent, to communicate our views on this count to the people.

The state LF government took certain clear principled steps in this matter and these are:

• An agricultural policy was put in place based on the successes in this field and in view of countering the attacks that are brought down in this regard

• A policy has been adopted in the realm of information technology, bio-technology, and allied service with the advancements achieved internationally

• A clear policy has been formulated in the matter of proper utilisation of the mineral resources and the private sector added to the endeavour in a transparent manner

• A policy has been adopted on joint sector in the matter of advancing the infrastructural facilities of the state

• A policy has been put in place for attracting indigenous and foreign capital for development and increase of exports

Agricultural diversification has been in place. Alternate agricultural production in lands that are not fertile has been implemented. The aim is to make the state self-dependent on food products. Food processing industries have been set up. Fruits and flowers are being exported. Infrastructure is developed further. Technology is being utilised to the full.

Since the implementation of the industrial policy of the Left Front government back in 1994, the succeeding years have witnessed investments coming in and an improvement in the perceived image about the state.  Employment is generated in the investments made in sectors like iron and steel, housing, marketing, InfoTech, petro-chem downstream, and food processing.

Urbanisation is spreading fast. Planned urbanisation can protect one-fifth of the agricultural land mass.  Since the state government is not able to make the massive investments necessary, the private sector has been invoked and conjoined with the state endeavour to build up satellite townships.

The women’s self-help groups in urban areas number over a couple of lakhs.  Problems persist in terms of uneven success at the district levels and comparative limited impact amongst the poverty-ridden. The qualitative changes do not match up to the quantitative changes achieved.

A drive is on towards achieving universal primary education. The number of students at the primary level, that stands at 1.03 crore (2002-2003), has undergone a great increase.  Around 50 per cent of the schools organise mid-day meals.  The literacy movement started all over the state could create quite a stir in some districts.

Mass initiative is being created in the matter of disease prevention.  The successes have come where the three-tiers of the Panchayats have become fully active. 

West Bengal does not fare badly in terms of overall growth compared to the all-India picture.  The state domestic product has grown (at 7 per cent) at a rate faster than that of the GDP (at 5.5 per cent). The agricultural sectors have been growing at a commendable rate. Improvements are marked in the health and education sector.

EMERGENT TASKS

The Bengal CPI(M) has identified certain tasks with regard to the Bengal Left Front government.  These are:

• With the participation of the state LF government and the kisan front workers of the Party, the issue of land utilisation in terms of soil testing, water management, crop selection, mixed farming, use of improved variety of seeds, animal resource development and agro-research must be considered seriously.

• The most poor and under-developed regions must be helped to grow with inputs like employment generation, education, health, potable water, communication etc.  The CPI(M) leadership in the designated areas and the mass fronts must join hands with the state LF government in this task.  The resources of invention and skill available amongst the masses must be utilised properly.

• To combat gender discrimination, development of women must be ensured through income generation, spread of education, expansion of self-help groups, prevention of school drop outs etc and the effort must be made into a mass movement.

• The broad directional pointers of the programme of the day concerns education, health, and generation of employment. The specific aim is to expand these facilities for the poorer sections of the people. Job oriented education, particularly technical education are our priorities. Value-added development of agriculture would include in its compass agro-industries, food processing, preservation of crops, and rationalisation of crop prices. It should be ensured that the kisan gets the proper prices for his crops and produce.

• It is imperative to widen the infrastructural base of educational institutions from the primary level to the secondary tier, including ICDS centres. The funds available out of MP and MLA quota must be used based on priorities.

• The Public Distribution System (PDS) being disrupted all over the country must be assiduously strengthened in the state. The union government needs to take initiative to do away with legal tangles over the issuance of BPL cards.  The Panchayats must monitor the Annapurna and the Antyodaya schemes in the rural stretches.

•  The village education committees must get involved side by side with the state government’s efforts in the matter of providing mid-day meals at schools.  All the people of the villages must be involved in the endeavour.

• In a scenario of capitalist globalisation, the dimensions of savings brought up by the cooperative movement assume greater importance and thus, the cooperative movement must be strengthened and widened.

• The revenue expenditure of the state LF government must be brought below the level of revenue income. Wastage at every level should be checked.  The effort to enhance income must be given the dimension of a mass drive.  The attempts by the state LF government to wrest from the union government what is legitimately due must be accompanied by mass movements on the issues concerned.

• The three-tier Panchayat system, the municipalities, the different bodies and institutions, and the departments of the state governments must become even more active to make a success of the effort at decentralisation. Review of the work done by elected representatives at every functional level is necessary for improvement of the organisation of work itself.

• The aim of the LF government, based on the ‘alternate’ policy should be the upliftment of the weakest sections of the society. The task must be accompanied by the development of the consciousness of the working class. 

• For welfare measures to succeed the participation of the mass organisations is necessary.  The Party, the mass organisations, and above all, the people must feel that they are part of the process of formulation and implementation of the state LF government’s policies.  Without mass initiative, programmes cannot succeed, despite financial viability.  Without mass struggles, mass initiative cannot develop. 

• The development of productive forces in education, health, employment generation, and agriculture is part of the higher form of class struggle. The entire process will help in the task of changing the correlation of class forces. The slogan for a better Left Front government based on honesty, proficiency, and empathy is possible if we could develop a better consciousness, a better struggle, and a better organisation.

• The state of Bengal is ahead in terms of Left movements and organisation; it must also now get ahead in areas like the economic development of the state, human development, and in the betterment of the standard of living of the people.  This is the biggest challenge before the Bengal CPI(M) and it has to accept this challenge.  The CPI(M) shall have to organise the government to achieve the desired success in education, health, industry, and agriculture. The entire Party must pledge itself in the task.  

Concluding his address on the placement of the report, Anil Biswas noted a few important pointers.

• The movements and struggles must be waged to further strengthen the Bengal Left Front government.  The declaration of Promode Dasgupta that mass mobilisation must be organised in support of principles and policies must be followed.

BUDDHADEB RESPONDS  ON THE LF GOVT RESOLUTION

Addressing the conference, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at the beginning that the LF government was formed as part of the formulation contained in the Party programme about an interim and transitional government. The goal is socialism.  The tactic within this larger strategy is the onus on development. The process of development would also augment the content of the class struggle being waged.  Development, emphasised Buddhadeb, is not for development’s sake alone.

Explaining the dimensions of development, Buddhadeb made it clear that one must fight finance capital and its globalisation with the help of the Party programme. Investments, foreign and indigenous, are allowed without any conditionalities being agreed to by the Bengal LF government. Factories are closed down and workers made jobless in the backdrop of the wrong, anti-people policies of the successive union governments, with the BJP-led government throwing open the floodgates to the imperatives of economic crises.

The Bengal LF government has seen to it that the food security of the people is not tampered with.  More than 72 per cent of the agricultural land mass is in the hands of the poor.  Education, health, industry, and self-help are being looked after with a class outlook where the maximum benefit must be accorded to the poorest of the poor. 

Nearly 26 per cent of the people now remain below the so-called poverty line.  While striving hard to rectify the situation, one has also to bear in mind that more than 60 per cent people were thus affected even 20 years ago.  Now, just over 4000 villages can be categorised, out of more than 38,000, as poorest of the poor.  Every effort will be made that not a single village remains impoverished. 

With the use of self-help groups, small capital, and labour intensive industries, the economy is being reinforced in its growth even as investments increase and infrastructural facilities go up in the manufacturing and info-tech sectors.  Vocational training is built up across the state.  Urbanisation and industrialisation go on but not at the cost of the interests of the people, especially the poor.  There would no ejection from the bastis (slums); such evictions happen frequently in other metros of India. 

Along with economic development, said the CPI(M) leader, the political scenario would be changed in the sense that the process of democratisation would be strengthened further, the ambience of secularism made decisive, and work continued to be done to enhance unity while enhancing the standard of culture. Buddhadeb concluded by assuring the conference that the Left Front government in Bengal was the outcome of class struggle and that development was not anti-thetical to that struggle in any circumstances.