DESPITE frantic efforts by Mamata Banerjee's administration to suppress the news, the horrors that took place under the leadership of Sheikh Shahjahan's forces in Sandeshkhali during the last ten years of the Trinamool regime have now spread across the mainstream media. The rule of law had collapsed in Sandeshkhali. The BDO has been assaulted. Rice fields have been forcibly occupied and inundated with salt water and converted into fish farms. The villagers were deprived of their allowances from various state government schemes. Housing scheme allotments have been taken away.

THE Puducherry CPI(M) state unit has initiated a prolonged and widely supported struggle on February 19, 2024. The coalition government of NR Congress and BJP has persistently refused to reopen ration shops across the state since their electoral victory in 2021, causing significant distress to the poor, downtrodden, and middle-class people of Puducherry. The total population of the state is 15 lakhs.Out of the 3,52,382 ration cards issued, 1,60,211 are red ration cards (allocated to below poverty line families), and 1,66,142 are yellow ration cards.

RESPONDING to the call of mass mobilisation, civil disobedience and grameen bandh given by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), and the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions/Federations/Associations and various other mass organisations of the state, Bengal erupted in a wave of protests on February 13. Though the programme was slated to happen on February 17, it was held earlier in the state due to the oncoming board examinations. Across the state, workers and farmers in huge numbers took to the streets and   demonstrated against the anti-worker, anti-farmer policies of the Modi government.

Farmers and tribals under the banner of CPI(M), take part in an indefinite sit-in agitation in front of the Nashik district collectorate.

THE Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch organised a demonstration at Butibori in Nagpur district, on February 14 to campaign for the rural India strike and to bring attention to the legitimate demands of the citizens of Butibori. It is noteworthy that Butibori was inaugurated as a 5-star MIDC area by the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. However, following industrial development, numerous civic problems have surfaced.The atmosphere in Butibori is now polluted, affecting the Vena River, which local fishermen rely on for their livelihoods.