ON May 7, 2020, Uddhav Thackeray, chief minister of Maharashtra, held an all-party video conference on tackling the Covid pandemic. CPI(M) Central Committee member Ashok Dhawale attended. The following is the nine-point charter that he placed on behalf of the CPI(M).

1. The situation of migrant workers is grim. The state government should ascertain the city-wise number of migrant workers and prepare a concrete plan for sending them home. Sufficient trains/buses should be started from Mumbai and other major cities for this. They should be transported free of cost and the expense should be borne mainly by the centre with some contribution by the state. Heart-rending pictures of thousands of migrants – children, women and men – walking hundreds of kilometres along highways are being screened. The state should make adequate provisions for their food, water and shelter at various places.

(A day after this video conference came the shocking news of the death of 16 migrants, mowed down by a goods train near Aurangabad. This incident once again exposed the heartlessness and bankruptcy of the centre in dealing with this issue.)

2. There are lakhs of people without ration cards in both urban and rural parts of Maharashtra. They include not only migrant labour, but also lakhs of the poor in the state. Since they are not given free rations, they are on the verge of starvation. The state government should immediately supply them rations and ration cards.

3. There are crores of unorganised and contract workers, agricultural labourers and poor peasants in the state. They are in dire straits since they have had no income for the last two months. Right from the beginning of the lockdown, we have been demanding that all families who do not pay income tax must be given a direct cash benefit of Rs 10,000 from the centre and all their loans be waived. The state should pursue this effectively with the centre and also share a part of this amount.

4. Crores of farmers and agricultural workers have suffered during the last Rabi season. To ensure that this does not happen in the coming Kharif season, the state government must do the following: Mahatma Jotirao Phule Loan Waiver Scheme should be speedily implemented, loans should be given to even those farmers whose loans are not repaid, agricultural inputs should be provided free or at minimal cost, MNREGA should be greatly expanded and the wage hiked to Rs 300 per day, massive cotton crop in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions should be procured at remunerative prices, a system set up to procure perishable crops at a proper price throughout the state.

5. The situation of several quarantine centres is unsatisfactory. Doctors nurses and other health workers are still short of PPEs. This should be quickly remedied and the testing should be further increased.

6. Thousands of hawkers selling vegetables, fruits and other essential items in Mumbai and other cities are being banned or harassed by the police. They have no other source of income. They must be allowed to carry on with their business.

7. Thousands of fisherfolk from Maharashtra have been stuck in adjoining states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa. They have no food or basic amenities. With the initiative of our elected representatives and the administration, over 11,000 such fisherfolk were recently brought back to their homes in the Dahanu and Talasari tehsils of Palghar district. Arrangements should be made to get all the rest home.

8. The administration at all levels should avoid use of the word 'social distancing' and replace it by 'physical distancing'. In Maharashtra which has a great tradition of social reform led by Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar, words reminiscent of the hated Manusmriti must be avoided.

9. The last point must be frankly placed. In the last one and a half month of the Covid pandemic, it is a great cause for worry that the centre has not spent even one per cent of the GDP for Covid relief, when many other countries have spent from 5 to 10 per cent of their GDP, and in spite of special funds like PM Cares being instituted. The centre has not given the state even its GST dues, leave alone any other financial help. It is the demand of the CPI(M) that the state government should make common cause with other suffering state governments and should pressurise the centre to radically change its policies in this regard.

Central Govt Alone Responsible for Aurangabad Rail Tragedy

EARLY morning on May 8, in a shocking incident, 16 migrant workers walking from Jalna to Bhusawal in Maharashtra on way to their homes in Madhya Pradesh, were mowed down by a goods train. Many others were injured. They had walked the whole day, were exhausted and fell asleep on the rail tracks at night.

The CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee holds the BJP central government led by Narendra Modi to be squarely responsible for this terrible tragedy. It is a reflection on the extreme insensitivity, callousness and moral bankruptcy of this BJP regime.

The way the lockdown was imposed on March 24 giving barely a four hour notice, no steps taken for the next five weeks to reach the distressed migrants to their homes, refusal to give them food and bare essentials to eke out a living, the heart-rending scenes of thousands of migrant women, children and men walking hundreds of kilometres to their homes all over the country in the scorching sun without food, water or shelter, over-charging these penniless migrants for their train and bus travel – all this points to the criminal callousness of the Modi regime. It has also exhibited its utter contempt for the working people who actually produce the wealth of our country.

The Aurangabad train tragedy has underlined all this once again. Beyond tweeting empty words after the tragedy, the prime minister and railway minister have done nothing.

In contrast, the Maharashtra government has declared help of Rs Five lakh each to the families of the deceased and is treating the injured.

But this cannot be enough. The CPI(M) demands that the centre must completely rehabilitate all the hapless families of the deceased migrant workers.

The CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee deeply condoles the death of these migrant workers and shares the great pain of all their families in Madhya Pradesh.