ANDHRA PRADESH: CPI(M) Protest against Harassment of Minorities

CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh state committee has organised a protest on July 12, against the illegal arrest of young men belonging to the minority community in Guntur. The CPI(M) activists including the state secretary P Madhu, who were on their way to visit the families of the arrested were lathi-charged and arrested by the Guntur police.

Historic Betrayal of Farmers: BJP Govt Denies Promised C2+50% & Assured Procurement

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP had generated high hopes and got the support of farmers in 2014 elections by promising the implementation of the Swaminathan commission recommendation of fixing MSP according to the formula C2+50 percent. It has betrayed them yet again by announcing MSP for the Kharif crops based on A2+FL costs instead of the promised more comprehensive C2 costs. Also no steps have been taken to ensure assured procurement. Without assured procurement any such announcement is only notional and will not accrue to the cultivating peasantry.

OECD-ICRIER Report on Farm Situation: Correct Diagnosis, Wrong Medicine

THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on July 10, has noted that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (OECD-ICRIER) Report on the farm situation vindicates its position that the neoliberal economic policies have adversely affected the peasantry and accentuated the agrarian crisis in the country. The report has rightly diagnosed that farming in India has been unremunerative for two decades. According to the report the gross farm revenues fell 14 percent on average between 2000 and 2016.

AIFAWH Observes Demands Day on July 10

NO to the move to stop hot cooked meals in anganwadis!NO to the move to introduce nursery schools in place of anganwadis!NO to the cut in central share of the ICDS budget from 60% to 25%For recognition as workers, for minimum wage and pensionTHE All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH), in a statement issued on July 10, has congratulated the anganwadi workers and helpers all over the country for their vigorous protest on July 10 which is observed by the union as ‘Demands Day’.Lakhs of anganwadi workers

AIAWU Working Committee Meets in Maharashtra

THE central working committee of AIAWU met at Nasik (Maharashtra) on June 19-20. 32 comrades attended the meeting from Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. The general secretary’s report had noted that the all-round attack on the rural cash economy, the hard hit farming sector, unemployment and the loss of jobs in agriculture, in construction as well as in small-scale rural businesses, is hurting the mass of the rural people and driving them to ruin and starvation.

Assault on Education

THE news about the legislations being brought forth to abolish the University Grants Commission (UGC) and to set-up a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) has brought into sharp focus the assault on education and, in particular, higher education, that is taking place under the Modi government.The various steps taken in the sphere of education are motivated by a twin motive – neoliberalism and Hindutva ideology.

WhatsApp does not Create Lynch Mobs, People Do

THE spate of lynchings related to rumours of child lifting has now affected large part of the country, with new incidents being reported every day. Clearly, this is not simply the unintended consequence of WhatsApp, as the government would have us believe. Or that some tinkering with WhatsApp, of course in close “consultation” with Facebook, the owners of WhatsApp, will solve the problem. The I&B ministry’s earlier initiative of regulating news portals, targeting critical news websites is now sought to be dovetailed into this narrative.

The Proposed Abolition of the UGC

THE Modi government is bringing in legislation in the coming monsoon session of the parliament to abolish the University Grants Commission. The UGC has two important roles at present. One is the distribution of funds to colleges and universities; this will now be handled by the ministry of human resource development. The other role is a regulatory one, which will now be taken over by a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). This commission however will have no funds to distribute.The proposed set-up will immensely increase political control over the academia.

TELANGANA: BLF Holds Mahadharnas at District Collectorates

THE Bahujana Left Front (BLF) held ‘Mahadharnas’ at district collectorates in Telangana on June 26-27, highlighting the problems of the people that had come to light during a one-month-long house-to-house survey conducted by it in all villages in the state, and demanding that the TRS government solve them.The police not only created hurdles to obstruct participation of the people in the rallies and Mahadharnas, but also imposed prohibitory orders and arrested several leaders and hundreds of people when they tried to lay siege at the collectorates.

September 5 Mazdoor-Kisan Rally: Universal Social Security for All Workers

WE want universal social security, that is, social security for all workers, wherever they might be working.Today a very small section of workers, mainly in the organised sector only are covered by social security benefits like provident fund, ESI, medical benefits, maternity benefit, accident compensation, gratuity, pension etc.

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