IT was a distressing news report -- Aarti Sharma, a woman from Agra in Uttar Pradesh, offered to sell her kidney to bear educational expenses of her three daughters and a son. And no one in her state came out to help her, despite her meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The district administration refused to offer any help to Aarti and her children in their hour of need. She had to sell their LPG cylinder in the black market to travel to Lucknow to meet the chief minister.

THE two day organisational plenum of Punjab state committee of CPI(M) was held at Bhakna Bhawan in Chandigarh on June 9-10, to review the Party Organisation in Punjab in the light of directions and guidelines of the Kolkata Plenum. 115 delegates participated in the plenum from all the districts of Punjab.A presidium consisting of Vijay Misra (convenor), Raghunath Singh, Ram Singh Noorpuri, Bibi Subhash Mattoo and Gurdarshan Singh conducted the proceedings.Bant Singh Namol, veteran leader of the Party from Sangrur district unfurled the Party flag.

INSTEAD of fulfilling the demands of farmers for implementing loan waiver and minimum support price of cost of crop plus 50 per cent, which have been promised by the BJP in its election manifesto, the state government led by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh shoots the farmers. Then the chief minister goes on a fast. Can there be any more shameful mockery of democracy, asked CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury. He was speaking at “Save Constitution Deshpremi Convention” organised by CPI(M) Karnataka state committee in Mysore on June 11.

JUNE 5, 2017 was a red letter day in the history of Maharashtra. On that day, practically the whole of rural and semi-urban Maharashtra came to a halt as part of a Maharashtra Bandh to support the historic statewide farmers’ strike that began on June 1. The call had been given jointly by several peasant organisations, among whom the AIKS is playing a major role.Hundreds of towns, mandis, roads, shops and government offices were closed down by lakhs of farmers who came on to the streets in solidarity with the demands of the strike.

FOR more than eight months since the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jeyalalithaa was hospitalised in late September 2016, the state of government in Tamil Nadu has been nothing short of disastrous for the people of the state. Following the demise of Jeyalalithaa and the subsequent split in the AIADMK, the rival factions of the AIADMK have been far more preoccupied with the struggle for the capture of the AIADMK and the survival of the government than with anything else.