People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
20
May 16, 2010
|
Vol. XXXIV
No.
20 May 16, 2010 |
THE Bengal
Left Front has
called upon its workers and supporters to step up campaign among the
masses of
the people to imprint the essential content of the civic polls – the
defeat of
the forces of reaction, sectarianism, anarchy, and separatism. In the
process,
the people must be involved in the struggle for the development of
democracy
and for peace and amity in
This call
emerged out of a
recent meeting held at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on May 8 to take stock
of the
coming polls to 81 civic bodies on May 30. The bodies include both the
Bidhannanagar (
The Bengal LF
and the
Bengal CPI(M) have allocated great weightage to door-to-door campaign
and on
neighbourhood-level smaller meetings rather than big rallies. The main issues that the campaign comprises
are:
·
The
anti-people and anti-poor policies of the Congress-run
union government of which the Trinamul Congress is a ministerial
constituent
·
The poor
state of health of the nation under the present
central dispensation
·
The increase
in poverty
·
The lack of
food security
·
The rise in
unemployment
·
The anti-poor
thrust of the general and railway budgets of
the union government
·
The
development of
·
The need to
preserve democracy and allow democratic norms to
flourish in the state
The Left
Front campaigners
have also pointed out that the in the present LF dispensation, the per
capita
funding of the urban bodies has been upto Rs 1500, a 1500 times
increase from
the Congress’s halcyon days. Apart from
funding, the LF civic bodies have worked for the uplift of the poor,
and have
ensured balanced development of cities and semi-urban areas. Emphasis has been given to development of
small and medium towns. Enormous and planned expenditure is exercised
in urban
health, water supply, sewerage and drainage, roads, parks and gardens,
and
lighting. Employment schemes for the
urban poor are in place with a budgetary allocation of Rs 250 crore. The metropolis of Kolkata is being given a
face-over but without loosing sight of the poor. The
fly-overs and the Kalyani expressways
have been supplanted in good measure with bustee re-housing and
rehabilitation packages for the dispossessed.
Biman Basu
has called for
the winning of seats in the civic bodies each with more than 50 per
cent
votes. An intensive campaign has been
going on all over
GRASSROOTS
MAHAJOT?
It has
already been made
amply clear that at the grassroots’ level the two principal opposition
parties
have come to an understanding with the scale weighed heavily against
the
thinning support base of the rudderless outfit called the Pradesh
Congress. Subrata Mukherjee has gone
over to Didi once again, pasty smile
at the ready, or rather, yet once and then once again – making the
switch over,
magician like, for the fifth time.
Would anyone care?
The ‘young’
faces that
Rahul Gandhi chose to thrust in, some months back, into the morass of
rightist
Bengal politics, as the eponymous aam
aadmi ka sipahis, have chosen to follow suit for, after all, is not
the
Trinamul Congress the ‘better’ of the two amir
aadmi ka party -- with more in the way of muscle-based electoral
prospects?
In ward 55 of
the KMC,
plumb in downtown Kolkata, where we have lived for ages now, the
Trinamul
Congress candidate would not hide the fact that his was a life
‘dedicated to
ensuring a win for the Pradesh Congress candidate,’ and whose alias is
‘the
Bomb’ for his explosive ways in his younger days.
(BP)
