A HUGE mass meeting at Swami Vivekananda Stadium marked the beginning of the CPI(M)’s 21st state conference of Tripura on February 25.Slogan shouting colorful rallies filled up the stadium bearing the heat of February.CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat addressing the meeting said the nine months of Modi government has shown that ache din have arrived for the big corporate houses while one after another attack is being launched on the toiling masses.

THE 21st Tamil Nadu state conference of the CPI(M) began with veteran leader of the Party as well as of the communist movement of the country, Comrade N Sankariah hoisting the flag, which was brought from Keezh Venmani in memory of Venmani martyrs.Torches in memory of Coimbatore Chinniyampalyam martyrs and the legendry communists M Singaravelar, B Srinivasa Rao and VP Cintan brought from various parts of Chennai were also handed over to the leaders.The conference which was held from February 16-19 was held in Chennai. K Bhimrao MLA, chairperson of the reception committee welcomed all.

THE recent spate of infections and deaths, caused by the H1N1 strain of the influenza virus across many states in India has once again brought into focus India’s ailing health care system. It is unfortunate that discussions on the country’s non-functioning public health system surface only in periods when the health system is faced with a challenge. WHAT IS SWINE FLU?Influenza caused by the H1N1 virus is also popularly called ‘swine flu’.

ONE thousand rupees a month, that too for ten months a year, is paid since 2009 as the wage more than 25 lakh mid day meal workers, providing noon meal for 11 crore children in 12 lakh schools in the country. A worker has to cook food for an average of hundred children a day. In more than fifty per cent of the schools, they have to get firewood, water etc for cooking.  Cleaning, washing the utensils and adding all the work they do, on an average, they have to work for six hours a day.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on February 21

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep grief at the death of Comrade Govind Pansare, CPI leader and prominent Marxist intellectual. Com Pansare was shot in a dastardly manner along with his wife Uma, by two assassins on February 16 in Kolhapur.

The killing of Com Pansare followed the same modus operandi as that of Dr Narendra Dabholkar in August 2013 in Pune. Extremist communal elements are suspected to be behind both these murders.