AS on March 1, 2021, India has a huge buffer stock of food grains of 9.2 crore tonnes (including unmilled paddy) which is three times more than the mandated buffer. In 2019-2020 when the buffer stock was slightly less, according to the annual report of the FCI, the carrying costs of the buffer stock was over Rs 12,000 crore.
WITH dates for elections to the West Bengal state assembly having been declared, the manifesto of the Left Front was released by the chairman of the Left Front, Biman Basu, in the presence of other Front leaders. These elections are being held in the backdrop of a year which was marred by a pandemic against which the entire human race is fighting a grim battle. The past year is also marked by a lockdown which was thrust upon the unsuspecting masses and which ruined lives and livelihoods of crores of people of this country.
THE AIKS, CITU and AIAWU jointly organised three Shaheed Yaadgar Kisan Mazdoor Padayatras (Martyrs’ Memorial March of Farmers and Workers) remembering the martyrs of the freedom struggle and the nearly 300 martyrs of the on-going historic kisan struggle. The padayatras took around a clear message of resistance against the anti-farmer, anti-worker acts brought by the Narendra Modi led BJP government.
THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on March 20, has condemned the recommendation by the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and PDS headed by the Trinamul Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay to implement the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
IN the ensuing elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly to be held on April 6, the CPI(M) Tamil Nadu state committee has decided to fight along with the DMK-led Secular Progressive Front. Following the discussions with the DMK, CPI(M) will contest six assembly seats. Similarly, CPI, VCK, MDMK are also contesting in six seats each.Following this agreement with the DMK, the state secretariat and the state committee of CPI(M) met and finalised the candidates for the six assembly seats as follows:1. Keelvelur (SC) – Nagai Mali2. Thiruparankundram – S K Ponnuthai3.
THE two-day all-India strike on March 15-16 was a huge success across the country. The call was given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), against the move to privatise two public sector banks.
ON March 26, the farmers’ struggle completes four months. On that day, the SKM has given a clarion call for a Bharat bandh to support the struggle and to put the Modi-led BJP regime on the mat. The last Bharat bandh was on December 8, 2020, and it had turned out to be a massive countrywide success.STRUGGLE CALLSThe various SKM struggle calls in the month of March were well implemented not only at the Delhi borders, but also throughout the country. On March 6, to mark the completion of 100 days of the struggle, lakhs of farmers blocked the KMP highway at all the borders.
IN a letter written on March 11, to the Counsel General of India based in Vancouver, Canada, the Indo-Canadian Workers Association(ICWA) demanded the immediate release of the three farm laws in India.The ICWA expressed its strong support to the farmers who have been peacefully demonstrating since August 2020 for their demands to repeal the anti-farmer laws and to ensure a legal guarantee of minimum support price.The ICWA, in the letter stated that in September 2020, the parliament of India hastily passed the three farm bills without any proper consultation of required stakeholders, especial
THE recent Quad declaration of the US, India, Japan and Australia has not foregrounded the military axis of their meeting but stressed more on the vaccine thrust against the Covid-19 pandemic. With the threat of a second or a third wave in various countries, vaccines are emerging as the centrepiece of not only global recovery but also of global diplomacy.
ON March 15, at the call of the Central Trade Unions and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, joint protests were held outside hundreds of railway stations against the BJP led union government’s drive for the privatisation of public sector assets, against corporatisation of agriculture through the farm laws, and against the massive rise in diesel, petrol and gas prices. These actions were held all over the country. Pamphlets detailing the harmful effects of these anti-people policies of the government, were handed out to the commuters at the railway stations.