Electricity Act Amendment 2021 & The Physics of the Impossible:

THE coal crisis in the country led to a significant shortfall of power generation, especially in the Northern region leading to hours of load shedding. However, certain private power producers like Adani Power made windfall profits. Facing blackouts, some state distribution utilities such as Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, were forced to buy power at exorbitant prices from the power trading platform Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

Reject CACP Proposal of Payments in Installments

THE All India Sugarcane Farmers Federation(AISFF) has denounced the recommendations of the Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) that sugar mills may be permitted to pay the Fair Remuneration Price (FRP) announced by the union government to the sugarcane farmers in instalments.The AISFF in a statement issued to the press on October 21 stated that the recommendations aim to safeguard the interests of sugar mills by putting sugarcane farmers to great harm.

MAHA: AIKS State Workshop Vows to Intensify Struggles

THE two-day AIKS Maharashtra state workshop began on October 1, 2021 at the Comrade Narendra Malusare Sankul, CITU Kamgar Bhawan at Nashik. Because of the Covid pandemic, a physical AIKS state workshop was being held for the first time in the last two years. It was attended by 177 leading activists from 22 districts.

Communalism and Fundamentalism in South Asia

THE series of targeted killings of minorities and migrant workers by terrorist groups in the Kashmir Valley have pushed the besieged territory of Jammu & Kashmir into new depths of despair and gloom. The diabolical aim of killing school teachers, street vendors and migrant workers is clear – deepen the communal divide and create conditions for an exodus. That this is happening in Jammu & Kashmir, which has been under central rule as a union territory since August 2019, is a strong indictment of the way the centre has dealt with J&K and the people of the Valley in particular. T

Afghanistan: Caught between Poverty and Possibility

THE future of Afghanistan will be determined not only in Kabul, where the Taliban is now firmly in power but also in places such as the Wakhan Corridor. A narrow strip of land that runs along the northern fringe of Afghanistan, the Corridor was formed in 1893 as a buffer between the Tsarist empire of Russia and the British empire of India. It is sparsely populated, its roughly 15,000 Wakhi (Kyrgyz) residents reliant upon adventure tourism.

Telangana: Industrial Cluster Strike

TELANGANA state government has not taken any necessary steps since the last seven years to amend minimum wages in 73 scheduled employment sectors and the workers are in frustration. CITU state committee of Telangana had taken up this issue for the campaign in the month of September 2021, also added the demands of abolishing Labour Codes, to issue gazette of GO’s released for five sectors in June 2021.

Brazen Callousness of Central Government Exposed

NO worse example of the brazen callousness of the Modi-Shah government has been witnessed in the last seven years. A full 10 days after the inhuman and brutal massacre of farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, which stunned the nation on October 3, the notorious union minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni, has neither been sacked from the Modi cabinet nor has he been arrested.

Restore Inter-State Migrant Workers Act

DURING the pandemic when the plight and sufferings of migrant workers had turned into the greatest human disaster, the Modi regime has, without any remorse, repealed the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 (ISMW Act, 1979) by “amalgamating” it with the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSHWC Code).

Sack the Union Minister-Yechury

SITARAM Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M), whilst placing the decisions of the Polit Bureau meeting in a press conference on October 11, demanded sacking of the union minister Ajay Mishra, and stringent action against his son, Ashish Mishra who is an accused in the killing of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP.

Current Power Cuts Due to Criminal Negligence in Government’s Planning

THE Modi government has created an artificial electricity shortage during the festival season, which normally sees a high electricity demand. With the opening of the economy post-Covid-19 second wave, power demands were expected to pick up in October. This, coupled with the festival season, would obviously see a large up-tick of power consumption. Currently, there is a shortfall during the evening peak hours of about 7,000 MW, most of it in Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar. Many others are staring at impending blackouts.

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