PREDICTABLY the authoritarian Trinamool Congress government came down heavily on working and retired state government employees as well as school teachers when they tried to peacefully march towards the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on November 23 demanding payment of pending 35 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears. Many of them were lathi-charged and received blows from the police and bled. The most shameful was the fact that the police personnel, especially the ‘civic’ (casual or ad hoc appointee) police, did not spare even women and aged pensioners.

THE second conference of Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Federation of India (MDMWFI), held from November 4-5, at Ranjana Nirula Nagar, Mallu Swarjyam Manch, in Hyderabad, Telangana, called for intensifying the struggle for basic rights of the mid-day meal workers of the country. The conference, held after a gap of seven years due to the pandemic, resolved to hold protests throughout India on December  11, 2022, demanding minimum wages and pensions for the workers who are now paid only Rs1,000 per month, that too only for ten months.  It is also resolved that the federation would oppose the efforts o

A COW belonging to a farmer, Jaidev of Matani village in Haryana's Bhiwani district , bordering Rajasthan died of Lumpy skin disease. The death of Jaidev's cow caused him not only a loss of Rs 45 to 50 thousand ( tentative price of that cow giving 16 litres milk per day) but also around Rs 10 thousand spent on its unsuccessful treatment . His second cow was also infected with Lumpy . Though it survived, but there was a reduction in  milk production. Mahavir of village Gullarpur in Karnal district of Haryana lost a cow with 9-10 litre milk per day causing the family tremendous distress .

POPULARLY known as Wali Gujarati, 17th century Urdu poet Wali Muhammad Wali, in his poem Dar Firaaq-e-Gujarat wrote: “Parting from Gujarat leaves thorns in my chestMy heart-on-fire pounds impatiently in my breastWhat cure can heal the wound of living apart?The dagger of exile has cut deep into my heart….The heart is still anxious to catch a glimpse of my Gujarat again”Wali, though originally not from Gujarat, while leaving for Delhi, expressed his longin

THE 24th AIKS Odisha state conference was held at Brahmagiri in Puri district on November 15-16, 2022. It began with a rally of hundreds of peasants, followed by a public meeting.  It included a good number of women and youth. It was presided over by AIKS state president Yameswar Samantaray, and it was addressed by AIKS president Ashok Dhawale, joint secretaries Vijoo Krishnan and Amal Haldar, state secretary Suresh Panigrahy, and state vice president Jagannath Mishra. November 15, the day of the rally, was the birth anniversary of the legendary Adivasi freedom fighter Birsa Munda.