IN line with the policies of liberalisation adopted in 1991, successive governments since the early 1990s have sought to subvert nationalisation of coal through disguised privatisation. This has been done in many ways. The mining capacity of public sector coal companies has been severely reduced through retrenchment, incentivising early retirements and imposing controls on recruitment. Consequently, public sector coal companies have been forced to increasingly carry out mining by sub-contracting operations to private contractors.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury met prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina at Dhaka on May 29. He was accompanied by CPI(M) Central Committee member Gautam Das. During the meeting that lasted for more than 40 minutes, Sheikh Hasina thanked the CPI(M) for its endeavour in the successful endorsement of the Land border agreement in the Indian parliament. Yechury noted that the problem was longstanding and all the political parties have helped towards its resolution.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement May 31

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the decision of the union cabinet to once again promulgate an ordinance on the land acquisition issue. This BJP government has failed twice in the past to sustain this legislation by getting parliamentary approval.

THREE dalits were killed on May 14 in Dangawas village of Nagaur district in Rajasthan and thirteen were seriously injured, among whom are six women in an attack unleashed on them by the dominant upper caste, the jats. The attack took place over the 23 bigahs of land of dalits which was forcefully possessed by jats since long. As rightful claimants of that land, dalits built huts in the farm land. The jat community called their caste panchayat on May 14, and pressurised the reluctant dalits to attend their panchayat.

INDIA’S higher education is going through a tumultuous period. A series of hastened ‘reforms’ are putting the very foundations of our public higher education at the brink of collapse. In last November, UGC had sent guidelines forcing all universities to implement the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) from the 2015-16 academic session. It has now been followed by a ‘Make in UGC’ approach of preparing centralised syllabi for undergraduate courses, with universities being given just 20 percent deviation while preparing their own syllabi.