In sharp contrast to the massive concessions showered on the corporate that we saw in these columns last week, is the series of policies and steps taken by the Modi regime to squeeze the people. They make an even longer list. Some of the glaring ones are as follows:SQUEEZING THE PEOPLE·                     A concerted drive to kill the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is on. The tone was set by Modi’s hand-picked NITI Aayog, which roundly termed this whole scheme as ‘waste’.

The entrance test for the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in West Bengal, scheduled on 28th June, was cancelled after reports that examination papers were leaked in several districts. The episode exposed another scam in anarchical education sector in the state.The report of question-paper leak was first published in Ganashakti. On the day of the scheduled examination Ganashakti carried reports of not only leak but selective sale of papers, allegedly through TMC leaders in some districts. The report was substantiated by facsimile of papers.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on June 26, 2015.

THE revelation by the Special Public Prosecutor in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, Rohini Salian that she has been pressurised by an officer of the National Investigation Agency to go soft in the case is a matter of deep concern.

IN keeping with the expectations of the people, CPI(M) retained its hold in the bye-elections to the Pratapgarh and Surma assembly segments, by a huge margin. Both these SC reserved seats had fallen vacant because of the untimely demise of the CPI(M) MLAs, Comrade Anil Sarkar and Comrade Sudhir Das. During the campaign itself, it had become clear that the CPI(M) was poised for victory. The polling on June 27 was absolutely peaceful and recorded a high voter turnout.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has donated Rs 5 lakh towards Nepal earthquake relief fund. The money, which was collected by the ground level activists of AIDWA was handed over to the ambassador of Nepal, Deep Kumar Upadhyay on June 16, 2015. An AIDWA delegation comprising of Jagmati Sangwan (general secretary), Sehba Farooqui (Delhi state secretary), Reeja Jayaprasad (CEC member), Maimoona Mollah (vice president, Delhi AIDWA) and Anju Jha (treasurer, Delhi AIDWA) handed over the cheque to the ambassador at the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi.