Given below is the text of the letter addressed to Nitin Gadkari, union minister for rural development by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat on July 4, expressing serious concerns on the functioning of MGNREGA and reports that the Rajasthan government has sought the scrapping of the Act.

I would like to draw your attention to some serious problems concerning the functioning of MGNREGA and to request you to take appropriate measures to strengthen the Act and ensure that it does not become hostage to fiscal considerations.

FOUR things stand out about the union budget for 2014-15 presented to parliament on July 10. First, the figures it presents are palpably unreal. Second, the basic fiscal strategy it embodies consists in providing concessions to the better off segments of the population, viz., the corporate elite and the upper middle class, at the expense of the poorer strata. Third, it unfolds a roadmap for the future that involves a significant privatisation of the economy, both through a pervasive reliance on Public-Private Partnerships and also through a massive sale of public sector equity.

AS we go to press, the Rajya Sabha on July 9 witnessed a furor following the raising of a news item (by the CPI(M) deputy leader in the House) that appeared in the media concerning the destruction of a large number of files containing historical records by the home ministry.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 10.

THE debut budget of the BJP government expresses deep commitment to continue the trajectory of reforms of benefiting foreign and domestic capital by emphasising on larger FDI flows and enlarged avenues for PPP projects. Fiscal consolidation is sought to be effected through contraction of public expenditures and not by increasing revenues through taxing the rich. Thus it is a recipe for further enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor.