TAMILNADU

‘Coal Scam: PM Should Explain to the Parliament’

S P Rajendran

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh should explain to the parliament and the people how such a huge scam in coal block allocation had taken place, said Prakash Karat, general secretary, Community Party of India (Marxist), at Coimbatore on August 17.

He was speaking about the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General, who had estimated that the central government had lost close to Rs1.86 lakh crore because of the delay in implementing competitive bidding process in allotting coal blocks to private companies.

Manmohan Singh owes an explanation because he had held the coal portfolio for around three years – the period when the government suffered the loss. He should also say if those found guilty would be sent to Tihar jail, just as it happened to those in the 2G spectrum scam.

This scam, as per the CAG’s findings, was much more than the 2G spectrum scam’s Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Plundering of public money of such massive scales happened because of wrong economic policies, especially the government’s handing over national resources to corporates that enabled capitalists make windfall profits at the expense of the people.

“What was loss for the government was gain for the companies – something possible in the present capitalist system, which encouraged capitalists to loot natural resources,” said Karat.

The CPI(M) was fighting against this for the past 15 years, he said at a function organized as  part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Party’s Tamil organ Theekkathir. Polit Bureau member K Varadharajan, state secretary G Ramakrishnan, Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan and other leaders were also present. The meeting was organised by Coimbatore district committee.

Another instance of loot was the second of the CAG’s findings: the company operating the Delhi airport earning Rs 3,600 crore by illegally charging Rs 250 from every passenger who flew out of the capital. This was against the terms of agreement.

In the backdrop of the aforementioned scam, the prime minister in his Independence Day address had said that though the government would like to pursue more economic reforms, it was unable to do so because of the lack of political consensus.

“I would like to assure the prime minister that for pursuance of such policies, it would not get political consensus,” he said.

Referring to finance minister P Chidambaram’s announcement on not pursuing the tax case against Vodafone, Prakash Karat wondered whether this was the sort of reform the prime minister was referring to.

On the Assam violence and people fleeing back to their home states in the North East, he said it was everybody’s duty to ensure that communal and divisive forces that looked for gains in this did not succeed. There were students and workers who were fleeing, fearing for their lives. They need to be assured that they were safe to live, study, work and earn their livelihood anywhere in India.

MADURAI: ALL SET TO HOLD

SFI CONFERENCE

The 14th all India conference of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), to be held at Madurai, a historic city of the country, will focus on issues like commercialisation of higher education, foreign universities bill and university campuses becoming undemocratic spaces, said J Rajmohan, SFI state secretary.

Addressing a press conference at Madurai about the preparations, Rajmohan said that the SFI conference, to be held for the first time in Madurai between September 4 and 7, would focus on various contemporary issues affecting education in India.

The union government is making efforts to dissolve the University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India, All India Council for Technical Education and other councils and create a single regulator. This would be inimical to the interests of the weaker sections of the society as it would accelerate commercialisation and privatisation of education.

Despite India being the largest democracy, the university campuses, in recent times, have become undemocratic due to political bias and faulty administration. Citing the recent case of Madurai Kamaraj University, Rajmohan said that only a democratic set up could provide the much needed conducive atmosphere, where research and education would thrive.

Various competitions in connection with the all India conference are already under way at various places in the state. More than thousand students from more than 50 colleges affiliated to Manonmaniyam Sundaranar University, Thirunelveli, participated in "Thodvaanam", an art and cultural meet.

At Madurai a ' mini marathon' was held on August 19. It focused on drug abuse as alcoholism is a main issue affecting the students in Tamilnadu. With the mushrooming of government-owned liquor shops in the recent past, students, mostly school goers, had turned alcoholics.

Veteran Marxist leader and freedom fighter N Sankaraiah, former SFI leader Sitaram Yechury, Economist C P Chandrasekhar, SFI leaders P K Biju and Ritabratha Bannerjee will address the conference.

Photo exhibition, seminars, cultural programmes at various places in the city would be held during the conference.

On September 4, the conference will begin with a massive students' rally and public meeting. The state committee of the SFI has planned to mobilise one lakh students in the rally.

The reception committee with 600 members is working hard for the complete  success of the conference.

TEN LAKH MIGRANT

WORKERS

In the aftermath of recent accidents at construction sites in the city of Chennai that cost the lives of at least 11 labourers, the CITU has demanded safe working conditions, minimum wages, better living conditions and enforcement of legal provisions for inter-state migrant workers in Tamilnadu.

On August 6, a portion of a 40-foot wall collapsed in the premises of Jeppiaar Institute of Technology at Kunnam, resulting in the death of 10 workers. Two days later, a crane boom failure resulted in an accident on the metro rail site near Pachaiyappa’s College, killing one labourer and injuring six others.

Speaking at a press meet held in the city on August 16, A Soundararajan MLA and state secretary of CITU,  said there were around 10 lakh migrant workers in the state, but only about 1.15 lakh are registered. Hence, most often, it is not possible to trace the identity or the kin of migrant labourers in the case of an accident. Registration should be made compulsory, he said.

He said that working and living conditions of migrant workers were deplorable. There is no safety monitoring mechanism or inspection at sites where these labourers work. The government is adopting a negligent stance as far as labour safety is concerned. During construction of a new secretariat building at Omandurar Government Estate, the labourers did not have a place to stay. They lived in sheds near the river Cooum. There are no toilets and many workers share the sheds. They do not have access to drinking water. Women labourers faced several hardships. They are paid between Rs 50 and Rs 100 as daily wages, which is much less than what the men earn. Besides, many of them also face sexual harassment, he said.