PSU Oil India Limited’s (OIL) natural gas Well No.5 in its Baghjan Oil Fields in Assam’s Tinsukhia district in Eastern Assam, less than a kilometre from the ecologically rich and fragile Dibru-Saikhova National Park and Biosphere Reserve with several other ecological hotspots in close proximity, suffered a blowout ie, an uncontrolled release of natural gas, on May 27, 2020, throwing up huge quantities of gas at high pressure into the air.

FINANCE minister has announced an allocation of Rs 40,000 crore for MNREGA. The FM had claimed in her press conference on May 17 that additional funds would be provided for MNREGA and 40-50 per cent more workers will be enrolled under the scheme compared to May 2019. However, the total budget available, including the Rs 40,000 crore for the MNREGA does not concur with her claims.The FM focused only to highlight Rs 40,000 crore and deliberately did not explain the real necessity of the budget according to the demand of work under MNREGA. It is a simple escape mechanism.

AT a recent press conference, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made an important announcement with global political dimensions. He said that the monopoly drug manufacturers are engaged in developing vaccines, medicines and other products related to the treatment of Covid-19. These would be patented and sold in the market for prices unaffordable to ordinary people. As an alternative, an Open Source Covid Movement based on the principles of cooperation and sharing is also coming up. The chief minister announced the state’s solidarity with this movement.

THE capitalist world has been gripped by a crisis since 2008, the basic cause of which is the unsustainable neoliberal capitalist system.Crisis-ridden capitalism has been trying its level best to come out of this crisis. But whatever methods and steps were adopted had failed to overcome this problem, unlike in earlier such crises. This showed the hollowness and vulnerabilities of the finance driven neoliberal order.In this backdrop, the sudden and unforeseen spread of the coronavirus pandemic has come like a bolt from the blue.

K VARADHARAJAN, an outstanding leader of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), passed away on May 16, 2020 at the age of 73. In his death, the democratic peasant movement has lost a dedicated fighter, most  of whose adult life was spent in the pursuit of the agrarian revolution in India.KV, as Varadharajan was popularly known among his comrades and activists in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and in the AIKS, was born on October 4, 1946 in the temple town of Srirangam in Tamil Nadu.