THE state conference began in the Kalibari Hall which was named as Kapoor Singh Supahya Hall after the former state committee member who died because of a prolonged illness. The conference was inaugurated by Prakash Karat. He spoke about the challenges the Party and the Left is facing in the country. While dwelling on the upcoming 21st Party congress in Vishakhapatnam he said the tactical line is being reviewed to enhance the growth of the Party on both fronts ie, the aberrations in the line and also in its implementation. He stressed on taking the Left and democratic alternative to the people and explain how it is different from the bourgeois landlord policies in the country and for that he said movements and struggles on local demands have to be built. The political and organisational report was placed by Rakesh Singha, state secretary of the Party. The political report pointed out that the state government is pulling out from its social responsibility. While placing the details about how this affected many sectors, Rakesh Singha further explained the major contradiction developing in the state, between the growing aspirations of the people for these services and the inability of the state government to provide the same as it does not have the capacity to do the same. The state is reeling under huge debt which has increased to over Rs 30,000 crores. The per capita debt in the state is very high and amounts to Rs 74, 136 for the 2012-13 financial year. The report further called upon the Party to take up these issues and ensure that movements are built on them as this will appeal the most to the people. While speaking on the organisational report the state secretary stated that the influence of the Party has grown since the last conference. But this is not commensurate to the growth of the membership of the Party. The membership has grown from 2010 to 2131 which is just over 6percent, however there have been some noteworthy movements that were led by the mass organisations which have not translated into Party growth. While elaborating about the five elements about growth of the Party as laid down by the 20th Party Congress, the report critically analysed each one of them and the weaknesses. While speaking about the major struggles the report laid emphasis on learning from the experiences of the land issue that pertained to encroachment by the peasants in the countryside. There was resistance from the people when the government wanted to evict over 1,64,000 cases of such encroachments which were led by the Party. The second struggle was of the students of the university and the colleges initially by SFI and then under the joint forum. The conference also laid emphasis to further enhance this struggle as the students have a pan Himachal character and is one of the most militant movements of the state. For that massive and widespread campaign needs to be unleashed. It was reported that in a referendum conducted by the students organisation more than 70,000 students participated and an overwhelming majority of over 85percent rejected the RUSA system ie, a choice based credit system of education. The third struggle which had an impact beyond its own demands was that of the workers struggle in Catch Soda and mineral water factory in Kullu district which continued for 107 days. The fourth struggle was that of the Bagga cement workers under the JP management in Solan district. This is an important ongoing struggle which will have an impact on all the cement workers in the state. The fifth struggle was pertaining to the LPG issue in Theog area which continued for over 73 days. Here the Party in a planned manner organised this struggle and mobilised another mass of the people who traditionally were not with the Left. While explaining the demographic profile of the Party he said that we have relatively a young Party that has a greater capacity to launch struggles. More than 12 percent of the Party members are below the age of 25 years and 21.2 percent are in between 26 and 31 years and 53.3 percent are between 32-50 years. So more than 86 percent are below 50 years of age. The Party is not only young but also comprises of a large number of educated youth as a majority of them have come from the students movement. More than 18.7 percent are graduates and 16.8 percent are post graduates. The class composition speaks about the more peasant character of the Party. 47.3 percent of the total Party members are from poor peasant background whereas 16.3 percent are from the working class and 12.5 percent from the middle classes. There has been no advancement in the enrolment of dalits into the Party though some activities were carried out in this area. In fact there is a fall of membership from 376 to 369 of the total dalits in the Party membership. While elaborating over the cadre policy, the report stated that there is certain advancement and new cadres have been enrolled. However the dropouts too are large. Since the last conference, 24 new comrades became whole-timers but 16, because of some reason, opted out. The trend is encouraging and a good number are opting for becoming whole-time cadres . The discussion took place on December 17 in which over 18 delegates participated. The focus was to strengthen the Party and the movement. Whereas they agreed with the overall criticism of the leadership for not devoting proper time in the centre and for not being able to guide the Party properly, at the same time the delegation was extremely self critical for the same and renewed the determination to carry forward the movement and the Party. While speaking about the overall anti-left tirade, the speakers gave valuable suggestions to counter this and create an alternative space for the Party. The focus was also to build ideological struggle which is extremely important at the present juncture, the delegates remarked. While going through the credential report it came to the fore that in all, 230 delegates attended the conference of which 27 were women. Nearly 82 delegates were whole-timers. On the last day of the state conference, Onkar Shad was elected as the new state secretary. Also a 30-member state committee was unanimously elected of which Rakesh Singha, Kashmir singh Thakur, Tikender Singh Panwar, Kushal Bhardwaj, Prem Gautam, Kuldeep Tanwar and Sanjay Chauhan were elected as the new state secretariat. A new state control commission was also elected with three members, of which Rajender chauhan was elected as the chairperson. The state conference also unanimously elected the four member delegation to the 21st Party Congress to be held in Visakhapatnam in April which includes Onkar shad, Tikender Singh Panwar, Kashmir Thakur and Kuldeep Tanwar. Before that the political organisational resolution was unanimously adopted. While addressing the conference, MA Baby Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) spoke at length about the challenges being faced by the Left ideology at the global level and the formidable struggle they are putting up, especially in Latin America. He said the economic model of the present BJP government is detrimental to the interests of the people at large. This needs to be changed and the change can only be brought by the Left policies so the alternative has to be on policies and not just individuals, he focussed. A Vijay Raghavan, the in-charge of the Party in Himachal and a former MP spoke on the organisational aspects that need to be strengthened to build a strong and powerful Party to meet the present day challenges. He particularly laid emphasis on steeling the ideological struggle. The conference has set forth five major tasks for the ensuing three years. 1. To build an alternative to the present set of policies and propagate it amongst the people. 2. To build struggles on local issues of the people that include the deteriorating service sector especially on water, electricity, health and education. 3. To fight atrocities being committed on women, dalit and such other marginalised sections. 4. Bringing the issue of land to the fore to champion the demand of providing land to the landless and to the inhabitants of the state. Further to check lands sharks and check the dilution of section 118 of the land reform and tenancy act. Along with that employment, PDS and education are issues to be championed. To lend support to the ongoing struggle of the student community against fee hike and anti- democratic ban on their elections. 5. To expose the neo-liberal policies amongst the young people and build an alternative culture which is progressive and democratic against the alien values of decadent feudal and consumerist culture.