August 09, 2015
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Seminar on Democracy & Corporate Politics Held in Guntur

P Satish

THE BJP led government is steeped in corruption within one year of its governance. We are making efforts to launch a broad movement against the BJP government’s corruption, said Prakash Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, at a seminar conducted by the Party in Guntur. He called upon the Left and democratic forces to unite for this. Modi government has doled out false assurances to the public and upon assuming power it failed to implement any of its main assurances. Moreover, it is doing away with welfare schemes and is attacking the common man, Karat explained. He sharply criticised the way the government is slashing all subsidies and diluting PDS, which is heaping burdens on the common man. Modi did not bother to implement his electoral assurances of implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee. The Modi government has been issuing ordinances on the Amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, but it had failed to enact the same due to the strong opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Leaders like Chandrababu might be happy with the Amendments to Land Bill 2013 but majority people of this country are opposing these changes, he said. After Modi coming into power, the percentage of suicides by farmers went up by 26 percent. He lamented that 60 percent of these suicides are due to the debt-trap. In the guise of agricultural loans, banks have been doling out loans to industrialists, corporate institutions while the farmers are getting a raw deal, he pointed out. The Modi government has diluted the MNREGS which is aimed at providing 100 days of work to agricultural workers, and has allocated less funds to the states as well as to the scheme. In the financial year 2014-2015, the allocations were reduced by Rs 6000 crores and the days of work have also been curtailed. Owing to privatisation of education and health sectors, poor are suffering a lot, he said. In this background, he appealed to the people to support the struggles of 17 parties of West Bengal, 11 Parties from AP and Telangana against the anti-people policies. He explained the rationale behind the two weeks programme decided by the Central Committee of CPI(M) to campaign about alternative policies. He called upon the working class to make the all India strike on September 2 a grand success so as to send out strong warning against the anti-Labour policies of the NDA government. P Madhu, CPI(M) state secretary announced that on August 3 all assigned lands will be tilled by cadres of CPI(M) in the capital region. Though the central government is declaring that it is not possible to grant special status to AP, yet the Andhra Pradesh government is still deceiving the people, he remarked. He demanded the central government to grant Rs 15,000 crores as special grant to reduce the fiscal deficit and to grant a special railway zone to Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government has been snatching away lands from farmers, thereby destroying the agriculture in the atate, he criticised. He sharply criticised the government for not increasing the wages of the anganwadi and Mid-day Meal workers and for its injustice to Bajrang Jute Mill workers, while doling out concessions to the tune of Rs 2,150 crores to industrialists and industries belonging to people's representatives. P Rama Rao, CPI(M) Guntur district secretary, presided over the Seminar. V Krishnaiah, CPI(M) state secretariat member also participated in the Seminar.