CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements on July 29:

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly denounces the union cabinet decision to unilaterally impose a New Education Policy and rename the ministry of human resource development.
Education is in the concurrent list in our constitution.  It is a gross violation by the central government to impose a New Education Policy unilaterally bypassing all the objections and opposition recorded by various state governments. 

A new policy of such a nature needs to be discussed in the parliament.  This was assured by the government earlier. The draft is, as per norm, placed on the table of the houses with a statutory time limit within which members of parliament can move amendments/give opinions.  The parliament has been completely bypassed. 

The draft of New Education Policy was put out in the public domain seeking suggestions and opinions from all stakeholders, mainly the academicia, the teaching community and the students. In addition, many intellectuals had also sent in their observations.  None of these have been considered. 

This unilateral drive is to destroy the Indian education system with a policy that seeks greater centralisation, communalisation and commercialisation of Indian education. 
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly protests against this move by the BJP central government. The Polit Bureau demands that a thorough discussion in parliament be held before implementation begins. 

Centre Must Pay the GST Compensation Dues to the States

FOUR months after the last financial year, the centre has finally paid the GST compensation dues to the states upto March 31.  However, finance secretary informed the parliamentary standing committee that the government is in no position to pay the GST share of the states as per the current revenue sharing formula for this financial year, 2020-21. 

State governments were guaranteed compensation from the centre for the first five years of GST implementation. This compensation was in lieu of GST taking away the powers of states to levy some indirect taxes to raise revenues.

This decision regarding the compensation to the states is part of the GST legislation.  Its implementation was cleared by the GST council.

For the central government to now renege from these commitments is tantamount to further centralisation of authority, violating the federal principles of our constitution and depriving the states of their legitimate revenues. This is not acceptable. These funds are all the more needed now when the single-minded focus should be of combating the pandemic. 

The CPI(M) reiterates its earlier demand that the entire fund collected in the name of combating the pandemic, in a non-transparent, non-auditable private trust fund, bearing the name  of the PM, should be transferred to the state governments who are in the forefront of the efforts to combat the pandemic. 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that the GST compensation dues for the first quarter of 2020-21, which has just ended, be transferred to the states immediately. It is absolutely essential to adhere to the earlier commitments and more importantly to help the states to combat the pandemic more effectively.