People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 41
October 13, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 41 October 13, 2013 |
POLIT BUREAU COMMUNIQUE
Join Communal Harmony
Convention, Oct 30
The
Polit Bureau of the
Communist Party of
Railway
Fare
Hike
THE
Polit Bureau strongly
opposed the two per cent hike in rail fares in express and
mail trains for all
categories of passengers. The freight tariff has also been
increased by 1.7 per
cent. This hike is consequent to the decision to
periodically hike the rail and
freight fares. The Polit Bureau demands the rescinding of
the fare hike and an
end to the system of periodically increasing the passenger
and freight fares
based on the fuel prices.
Privatisation
of
Airports
The
Polit Bureau of the
CPI(M) condemned the decision of the government to hand over
the running of the
two metro airports of Chennai and Kolkata, owned by the
Airports Authority of
India, to private parties. Along with this, 12 other
airports are to be
similarly outsourced to private companies.
In
both Kolkata and
Chennai, it is the Airport Authority of India which built
the new terminals and
these public funded airports are now to be handed over to
private companies.
Apart from handing over public assets, the future of the
employees of the
Airport Authority of India will be jeopardised.
The
central government
should immediately scrap this privatisation plan.
Allocation
of
Resources
to States
The
allocation of
resources and funds to the states has always been a
contentious issue. The
CPI(M) has been demanding that 50 per cent of the central
taxes and revenues
should be allocated to the states.
The
Raghuram Rajan
committee report on indexing backwardness of the states has
been submitted to
the government. The recommendations of this report should
not be implemented
without first consulting the state governments.
The
Finance Commission is
the constitutionally set up body for devolution of resources
to the states. The
question of equitable allocation of resources to the states
and also taking
into account the backwardness of states should be decided
only after
consultations with the states.
Prime
Minister’s
A
joint declaration on
defence cooperation has been issued after Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s talks
with President Obama in
The
CPI(M) is against
Attacks
Attacks
on the CPI(M) and
Left Front cadres and activists are continuing in
The
Polit Bureau demanded
that such attacks should be stopped forthwith and the state
government must
take steps to end this violence against the opposition. The
Polit Bureau
appealed to all democratic forces in the country to protest
against this
violence and attacks on democracy.
Muzaffarnagar
Riots
The
Polit Bureau expressed
its deep concern at the major outbreak of communal violence
in Muzaffarnagar on
September 7-8. Forty five people were killed, hundreds
injured and some women
were raped. Around forty thousand people had to take shelter
in camps.
This
communal violence has
come in the background of the systematic efforts to raise
communal tensions and
provoke violence by the RSS outfits. The Uttar Pradesh
administration was not
vigilant and did not intervene promptly to prevent the
situation from
developing into such a conflict.
In
this connection, the
Polit Bureau wants the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill
to be taken up
expeditiously and adopted.
Convention
for
People’s
Unity
And
Against
Communalism
The
Polit Bureau extended
its full support to the holding of a convention on October 30 which is meant
to mobilise the people
to maintain people’s unity and to combat the communal
forces.
