The Horror of Private Medical Care in India

SEVEN year old Aadhya spent the last two weeks of her life at a ‘state of the art’ private medical facility, her survival dependant on an artificial ventilator. Her brain had probably stopped functioning several days before she died, but we will never know for sure. While a young child suffered silently, for she had lost the ability to cry, Fortis hospital in Gurgaon – a corporate run Frankenstein – was busy planning how they could extract more from Aadhya’s frantic parents.

TAMIL NADU: Kanyakumari Devastated by Ockhi Cyclone

END of November saw the fury of Ockhi cyclone in the three southern districts of Tamil Nadu namely Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi. In this, Kanyakumari bore the brunt while the cyclone was changing its direction towards the western coast. This district is well known for its coconut, rubber and plantain trees besides paddy, which form the economic backbone of the district. The strong gale uprooted each and every tree in the district besides numerous electricity poles bringing the normal life to a stanstill.

PB Communique: CPI(M) Condemns Hate Crime

CPI(M) Polit Bureau met in New Delhi on December 9-10, 2017. It has issued the following statement on December 10.CYCLONE OCKHI: CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MUST PROVIDE ADEQUATE RELIEFCyclone Ockhi has caused immense damage in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In Kerala over a hundred people have been reported as dead and nearly a hundred are still missing. Thousands of houses, mechanised and country boats of fishermen have been damaged. In Tamil Nadu, thirty people have been reported killed while over a thousand are missing.

Oppose Privatisation of Dredging Corporation of India

THE union cabinet decided to completely privatise the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) at its meeting on November 2. Subsequently, the government formed an inter-ministerial group on November 22 to speed up the privatisation process. CITU general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Tapan Sen wrote a letter to the prime minister on the same day, opposing the privatisation of the DCI. On December 4, a permanent employee of the corporation, N Venkatesh, committed suicide near Vizianagram in Andhra Pradesh.

Left Gains Only Through Unrestrained Struggle against Neoliberalism

IN the recent past, a slew of elections were held in various countries. A study of these election results will help us in understanding the political developments.Recently, parliament elections were held in Nepal – the first after the republican constitution was adopted. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists-Centre) contested the election in alliance. Out of the 165 parliament seats, for which representatives were elected according to the first-past-post system, they had secured 116 seats. The Nepali Congress secured only 23 seats.

Logo for 22nd Congress of CPI(M) Released

The logo for the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), scheduled to be held from April 18-22 , 2018 in Hyderabad was released by state secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram, who is also the general secretary of the Reception Committee. Along with him on the dais are Ch Sitaramulu, Central Committee member, B Venkat, treasurer of the Reception Committee and state secretariat member, Jyoti and Sunnam Rajyam, MLA, both state secretariat members and secretaries of the Reception Committee.

National Alliance of Journalists Call for Unity and Broad Front

THE first National Alliance of Journalists convention and innovation meeting was held at New Delhi on December 10.

Cyclone Ockhi and Our Response

ON November 30, when the cyclone Ockhi struck, it was for the first time in 100 years that such an incident had occurred in Kerala’s seas. Thousands of fishing workers were then out in the sea. State government and various agencies were able to jointly carry out the rescue operations in an efficient and timely manner. This has helped to save the lives of hundreds of fishing workers.Despite the cyclone warning being issued only in the noon of November 30, the same day when it hit us, we were able to rescue around 400 workers and bring them back to land.

Barbaric Killing of Migrant Labourer in Rajasthan

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in a statement issued on December 11, has condemned the barbaric murder of an innocent migrant worker Afrazul in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan on December 6, by axing and burning him alive and videographing and uploading the episode in social media as an act of bravery against the purported ‘love jihad’.

BSNL Employees on Two-Day Strike Seeking Pay Parity

OFFICERS and employees of the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) observed a two-day strike on December 12-13, seeking pay revision and protesting against the formation of a subsidiary tower company.As per the recommendations of the Third Pay Revision Committee that have been approved by the Union Cabinet, the employees of BSNL are not eligible for pay revision, with effect from January 1, 2017.

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