INTERVIEW WITH BUDDHADEB BHATTACHARYA ON 33 YEARS OF LEFT FRONT GOVT IN BENGAL

'The Meaning of So-Called  “Change” is Anarchy'

The Left Front government in West Bengal has achieved the distinction of continuing for 33 years at a stretch. It has started the journey of 34th year on June 21, 2010. In an interview to Ganashakti, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has highlighted some issues in the context of present situation in the state. Below we give excerpts of the interview:

 

On the recent defeats in polls

The Left Front has gained majority support for consecutive seven terms from 1977. The results of last Lok Sabha elections was an exception. Same trends have been noticed in other elections thereafter. After the Lok Sabha elections, we have reviewed the results. We have identified the areas in government’s planning and actions where there are mistakes. For example, we are now alert on the question of land acquisition. We will protect the fertile lands while non fertile lands would be used for industrialisation. In this case too, we have to be much more sincere on compensation and rehabilitation. If the poor people feel ignored in any area of government and panchayat activities, we have to correct those mistakes. We have to be more sincere about the development of minorities.

We have also identified problems in the organisation of Party. There have been instances of undesirable activities which have dented Party’s image. We have decided to rectify quickly.

Is there a problem in the relationship with the peasantry?

The Left Front was born through continuous peasant movement along with the movements of workers, employees, teachers, students, youth, women. Left Front has progressed through land struggle and struggle for sharecroppers’ rights. The peasantry was deprived in the Congress regime. They were given due honour during the Left Front period. Around 11 lakh acres of land was distributed to the poor and marginal farmers through land reforms. More than 15 lakh sharecroppers were recorded. Overwhelming sections of the peasantry support the Left. One aspect of the Singur and Nandigram episode was our target for industrialisation and generation of employment. But a section of the peasantry and the general people did not accept our stand. To them transfer of land for industries became major concern while they did not comprehend the alternatives. We have now become more careful. The policies for acquisition of land for industries and rehabilitation must be made more realistic, so that the peasantry and the people in general accept that and participate voluntarily.

 On the continuous obstruction by opposition parties

It is true that the organised obstruction to resist governmental projects has increased after the last Lok Sabha elections, for example, in Nayachar petrochemicals project, in power project in Katwa, expansion of national highway etc. Despite this, we have progressed during this period. The agricultural production has increased. More than Rs 7000 crore have been invested in industries in the last one year. Clusters for small industries have been constructed. The number of schools and colleges has increased while new universities have been started. Very soon work of Sidho-Kanu University will start.

It would have been correct for the opposition parties to support the government in developmental activities. However, they have continuously put obstacles. Whatever be the situation, we will forge ahead with our programme. We cannot remain idle.

One  of the the priorities Left Front government

The priorities can be best summarised as follows: to take the success of states’ agriculture to a new high banking on the success of the land reforms in the state; to fasten up the pace of the process of industrialisation in the state; to advance in the field of human resource development through advancing the success in education, health and related areas. Our topmost emphasis is on the socio-economic development of backward sections, including schedule castes, schedule tribes and minorities.

We have emphasised in distribution of homestead lands in rural and urban areas. Emphasis has been given on employment generation.

On Maoist terror

One of the major problems in the Jangal Mahal area is the terror and annihilation campaign unleashed by the 'Maoists'. We are fighting them both politically and administratively. But the complexity of the situation is that the main opposition party and some organisations are encouraging them either directly or indirectly. We treat this problem as a political problem.

Of course, the problem has an all-India perspective. 'Maoists' are active in seven to eight states. As they have chosen poorer areas as their terrain, it is necessary to initiate socio-economic measures to isolate them. It is also necessary to face them politically apart from activating the police and administration. It is a long term fight and there is no easy solution.

On the so-called slogan of “change”

What is the real meaning of so-called slogan of “change”? Whatever has been done by us, would be changed retrogressively? Will the lands which have come in the hands of the peasants be returned back to landlords? Will the investments for industries be returned? Will the decentralisation of power through panchayats and urban local bodies be dismantled? The people of West Bengal have marched forward in the last 33 years. What are the alternative policies of the opposition? Anarchy can not bring any real, meaningful change. We want to march towards the light, not retard back into darkness.

Thirty Three Years of Bengal Left Front Govt Commemorated

By B Prasant

A QUIET determination marked the rally held under the aegis of the Bengal Left Front at the indoor stadium in downtown Kolkata during the afternoon of June 21, 2010. A pledge was assured from the rally that the development of the state would continue apace and the forces of anarchy would be resisted. The top leadership of the Left Front addressed the rally.

The Left Front chairman Biman Basu said that the path carved out by the Left Front in Bengal especially from 1977 was hardly strewn with flowers. It had been a tough struggle and until now more than 2500 Left workers had to lay down their lives.

Drawing attention to the present conspiracies being woven against the Bengal Left Front, the speaker said that past US representatives in India had mentioned in their writings how funds were made available to the anti-Left forces from abroad. This was in addition to the role played by the Indian ruling classes in terms of money and muscle.

The present attempt at breaking up the concerted Left Front drive to uplift the poor and to speed up the process of economic development of Bengal was part of that old game plan. The speaker dwelt on the various developmental aspects of the policies of the Left Front government. He also said that the Left Front would amend its ways wherever it has strayed, and shall sharpen the struggle against imperialism, capitalism, and reactionary forces.

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that Left politics to the fore in Bengal as elsewhere meant the ongoing brightening prospects of the masses of the people, especially the poor. The Bengal Left Front government has worked to the best of its abilities for the poor and the backward sections of the masses.

The Left Front government has no other interests to look to except for those of the toiling people. If in organising its tasks and in implementing them, any deviations and errors had taken place, the Left Front government would put in appropriate corrective measures and forge ahead in the days to come. The speaker mentioned the increasing imperialist intervention in India of late and spoke of the communal menace.

The speaker called for a wide struggle to be built up against such moves. The CPI(M) leader noted the achievements of the Left Front government and spoke of future programmes of pro-people development. He called for a struggle against all counter-democratic elements and their political outfits.

CPI leader Swapan Bannerjee, veteran Forward Block leader Ashok Ghosh, RSP leader Kshiti Goswami along with leaders from RCPI (Mihir Baine), BBC (Umesh Chowdhury), MFB (Pratim Chatterjee), DSP (Ratan Majumdar) and WBSP (Kironmoy Nanda) spoke in the meeting which was presided over by Left Front chairman Biman Basu. At the start of the programme, one-minute silence was observed in the memory of the 2586 martyrs of the Left Front who have sacrificed their lives to protect the Left Front in the state from reactionary forces.

A cultural programme was also held by the artistes of IPTA at the start of the programme. Huge cut-outs of the two late architects of forging the Left unity in the state – an unique example before the country for the last 33 years – Comrades Jyoti Basu and Pramode Dasgupta, the first chairman of the Left Front in the state, hung from the two sides of the stadium along with numerous graphical banners highlighting the achievements and ideology which forms the basis of the exemplary Left unity in the state.

The 33 years of the Bengal Left Front government was commemorated in big rallies across Bengal. The size of the gathering would be enough to convince a political observer to note that the Left Front has not seen its mass base corroded in the fields of struggle. Leaders of the Left Front constituents were present in all the rallies.

People's Democracy on West Bengal Municipal Elections

People's Democracy Editorial

June 06, 2010

 

IN the results of the elections to the 81 municipal bodies across the state of West Bengal held on May 30, 2010, the Left Front has won in only 18 municipalities. The Trinamul Congress has won 26, the Congress 7, the anti-Left alliance 4, while 23 are hung, 3 have resulted in a tie. In whose favour these would be resolved will only be known in the future.

In the finest traditions of democratic practice, the Left Front led by the CPI(M) has accepted the people’s verdict. The Left Front in West Bengal has declared that it shall make a proper assessment and review of these results to draw correct lessons for the future.

There has been a massive media hype that these elections are a `semi-final’ for the so-called `final’ assembly elections in May, 2011. The politically conscious electorate in Bengal is discerning in the sense that it treats every election on the basis of its objective. The Lok Sabha elections were to determine the government at the centre. The elections to the state assembly are to determine the government in the state. Likewise, the municipal and panchayat elections have their own objectives. Each election is, therefore, a different ballgame.

 

The Trinamul Congress has mounted a shrill campaign for the dismissal of the duly-elected state government and the holding of early elections. This is not only patently undemocratic but completely irrational. The total number of people eligible to vote in these municipal elections was 85,33,000 out of a total electorate in the state of 5,24,32,000, ie, only 17 per cent of the total electorate. This makes up for less than 40 seats in an assembly of 294. The rest of the 83 per cent constitutes the rural Bengal electorate or more than 250 assembly seats, which has predominantly determined the character of the government in the state in the past. Hence, it will be fallacious to conclude that the results of these municipal elections are a reflection of the state’s electorate as a whole.

Nevertheless, it is a reflection of urban Bengal. To that extent, the Left Front is committed to undertake a serious introspection of these results. During the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, which saw a serious erosion in the Left vote, the Left Front had a lead in 525 of the 1766 municipal wards in the state or 29.73 per cent. In these elections, the Left Front has won 603 out of 1791 municipal wards or 33.67 per cent. Hence, the situation now shows, at best, a marginal improvement in the performance of the Left Front.

Clearly, therefore, the setback suffered in the Lok Sabha elections has not been reversed but the downslide appears to have been partially arrested.

In the 2005 elections to the municipal bodies, the Left Front had won an unprecedented victory bagging 50 out of the 81 municipal bodies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, however, it had led in only 19. In these elections, it has won in only 18. However, as noted earlier, the leadership of 26 municipal bodies will only be decided later. The main reverses to the Left Front have come from Kolkata and its adjoining urban areas. North 24 Parganas district has 21 municipal bodies while Hooghly district has 12. In 2005, the Left Front had won 26 of these 33 municipalities. This time Left Front has won only in 4 with a tie in 2 municipalities. This is a serious matter that needs to be properly reviewed in order to draw the correct lessons and apply the needed correctives. The CPI(M) and the Left Front are committed to undertake this task in right earnest.

 

Bengal CPI (M) Shall Review Civic Poll Results

BENGAL CPI (M) shall go into the details of the electoral reversal it faced in the civic polls 2010, despite the fact that there has been a slight if not perceptible improvement in the vote share and seats won this time compared to the Lok Sabha elections of the past year. The Bengal CPI (M) and the Bengal Left Front have felicitated the people for their participation in the elections and have also humbly accepted the popular electoral verdict.

Biman Basu, Bengal CPI (M) secretary briefed the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on June 2, 2010. Biman Basu who also heads the Bengal Left Front as its chairman, noted that the Left Front ‘has not done well in the elections, whereas the principal opposition, the Trinamul Congress has performed well,’ causing the CPI (M) and the Left Front to conduct a review of the results towards fixing the tasks ahead.

It would be found out if there had been any error in the performance of day-to-day contact with the masses. It would also be looked at from the point of view of the conduct of the campaign-movement, with special note of the fact whether the campaign ‘had passed over the heads of the masses in the process.’

The CPI (M) and the LF have done marginally if not significantly better than in the past Lok Sabha polls. The performance was less than that of the CPI (M) and the LF in the 2005 municipal elections. The following are the brief details of the election result. The complete statistical picture would be available shortly.

In 2009, during the Lok Sabha polls, the LF had won 525 municipal wards with a vote share of 29.73 per cent. This year it won 603 wards with a vote share of 33.67 per cent. In municipalities like Jamuria in Burdwan, or Englishbazar in Maldah the vote share has increased as it has done at Kalna in Burdwan despite losing the latter to the principal opposition outfit.

Biman Basu assured the media that there could be no question of advancing the dates for the 2011 assembly polls based on the civic poll results as a mere 17 per cent of the electorate of Bengal had exercised their franchise this time around. The Left Front would have no role to play in the ‘hung’ municipal boards.

The following results were obtained in the civic polls 2010.

Total 81 civic bodies

Left Front 16

Trinamul Congress 25

Pradesh Congress 07

‘Hung’ 31

Kolkata – 141 wards

Wardwise results

Left Front 33

Trinamul Congress 95

Pradesh Congress 10

BJP 03

Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) – 25

Wardwise results

Left Front 09

Trinamul Congress 16

(BP)

Buddhadeb Calls for Defeating the Unholy Alliance

BENGAL CIVIC POLLS

By B Prasant

THE civic polls being held for 81 self-governing institutions in the cities and townships spread across Bengal are a political battle, as are all elections. The enemy of the people are standing by to wreak havoc and let slip the dogs of war. The masses must come forward to rip apart the gathering darkness of the storm cloud on the political scene in Bengal, re-elect the CPI(M) and the Left Front by big, emphatic margins, and ensure that the process of development and democratisation continue apace.

Thus said Bengal chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, while he was addressing a very crowded media conference at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan at noon on 16 May.

There is a twin process of industrialisation and urbanisation in Bengal under Left Front governance. The process needs to be made faster. There is a continuing attempt to maintain a balance between urban and rural, between the townships and the cities, between the cities and the metropolis.

The Left Front has been engaged in this task from back in 1978 when much earlier to the concerned Constitutional proviso coming into force, the civic bodies and the Panchayats had been made into viable self-governing institutions. The Left Front is the founder of the implementational concept of local institutions and this has been a unique achievement in the country.

The Left Front has included such elements in the civic bodies like timely elections, citizens rights ensured, voting age brought down to 18 years, reservations set in place, putting in place the mayor-in-council, borough committees, and making them operative, along with the latest addition of a citizens’ charter in each municipality.

Critical of the Congress, Buddhadeb pointed out that the successive Congress-run central governments deprived the state of funds due. The Trinamul board at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sat on its hands and spent funds on non-essential items of expense. The Left-run board of the KMC have been seen to go all out with pro-people development programme implemented in a balanced manner. He also pointed out that the union government gives back but 32 per cent of the tax it collects from the states. The demand of elevating this amount to at least 50 per cent has been ignored by the Congress-run central governments in succession. The state finance commission has been engaged in allowing 50 per cent of the plan budget to be spent at the local level.

Noting that it was always difficult to comment on the intransigent ways of the Trinamul Congress and its partners in the right and to the extreme Left, Buddhadeb pointed to the rainbow alliance with political fuel from forces of reaction abroad and said they must be defeated and defeated comprehensively. It was dangerous of the Trinamul Congress to speak of an impending communal violence to precede the civic polls.

The outfit is dangerous to the point that they would see a violent scenario overtaking the municipal elections – ‘violence, threats, and lies,’ comprise the slogan-mongering of the Trinamul Congress. Buddhadeb pooh-poohed the claim of the Trinamul Congress that there were no ‘Maoists’ in Bengal.

On the other hand he asserted that the outfit was engaged in preparing the ground for the left sectarians in Bengal In passing he also pointed to the internecine killings that had started to take place at Nandigram and surrounding areas amongst the assassins of the Trinamul Congress itself, and called upon everybody to maintain amity, through discussions when necessary.

Buddhadeb commented in this context that two recent developments were of an alarming nature. The RSS spokesperson has called upon to ensure that the Trinamuli leader becomes the Bengal chief minister. Secondly, clutches of people from the BJP have joined the Trinamul Congress but they have not given up their RSS memberships. The left sectarians had long back exposed their preference to see the Trinamuli chieftain as the next chief minister of Bengal.

It was imperative, concluded Buddhadeb, for the masses of the people especially the young to come forward, take part in the democratic process and ensure a big victory of the Left Front in the upcoming civic polls. The people have already realised the Left stood for progress, for development for amity and for democracy. In responding to queries Buddhadeb said, among other things that only the state government could bring forward the date of elections for the Vidhan Sabha polls.

Developmental Works of Kolkata Municipal Corporation

By B Prasant

IN a free-ranging interview, Bikash Bhattacharyya, noted legal authority and the serving mayor of the vast metro of Kolkata spoke to People's Democracy on the developmental works that had been undertaken during the tenure of the Left Front board between 2005 and 2010. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) goes to gather the people’s verdict on 30 May. Excerpts follow.

 

WATER  SUPPLY

Improving water supply, noted Bikash, ‘has been a major focus of the LF-run board over the past half-a-decade.’ The efforts have yielded results. The piped water supply of potable water has been vastly augmented via commissioning of water treatment plants, booster pumping stations, reservoirs, and what he called ‘headworks’ that included covered, underground reservoirs, sinking a big number of tubewells, and revamping the distribution system itself.

Giving examples, the mayor pointed to the commissioning of a 260 MGD water treatment plant at Palta, water-treatment plant and pumping station at Watgunge and Gardenreach, replacement of vital electrical installations at the big pumping station at Auckland Square near the La Martinier’s school at the very heart of the metro, and laying of no less than 200 km of big dia pipes across and around Kolkata – a massive project.

SEWERAGE  AND DRAINAGE

Water-logging has been made much of in the corporate media while ranting and raving against the Left-run KMC board. Kolkata as we know has a saucer-like shape and the main drainage to the east of the city has sadly given away to urbanisation with the horizon-touching stretches of shallow water bodies disappearing.

The principal sewer networks were laid in the colonial period and it consists of a century-old brick sewer of 180 km or more. What causes water logging, other than heavy rainfall?

Bikash informed us of the following causes:

Reduction of hydraulic capacity of the sewerage system due to silting

Poor and collapsing sewer lines

Destruction of wetlands that we noted above

Old and creaking pumping machines

Silting up of the ‘outfall’ canals around the metro

The Left-run KMC has undertaken over the past five years a series of measures through upgradation of the sewerage and drainage systems with gradual replacement of the brick stricture with fibre-based gigantic sized tubes – a costly and time-consuming operation. We cannot stop water from being logged, but we could ensure that the accumulated aqua disappeared rapidly enough was how the mayor would put it. The measures taken include clearing the lines, boosting the pumping stations, and re-excavation of the drainage canals.

SOLID WASTE  MANAGEMENT

This is a bane for any metropolis. The Left-led board has tackled this issue in a uniquely pro-people way. The capacity to collect waste has been increased by nearly 70 per cent and 65 per cent of all households stand covered with more in the pipeline, so to speak. The resources and machines used for waste management have been increased manifold. New disposal sites have been set up with facilities for conversion of waste into useful material. Waste is used for landfill with an environmental-friendly outlook.

PRO-POOR  ACTIVITIES

The mayor pointed out how 30 per cent of the metro populace still lived in bustees (there are officially 5500 such ‘colonies’) and, thanks to the pro-rich bias of the successive union governments bent on depriving the states of their due share of finance, 22 per cent of the metro population yet languish beneath the poverty line if we are to go by the 2001 census figures.

The mayor emphasised on the fact of realisation of the KMC that unless the poor underwent uplift and rehabilitation, the city itself could never flourish as a viable urban centre with a vast hinterland. While the direct pro-poor expenditure back in 2004-2005 stood at Rs 56.16 crore, the present figure is a thumping Rs 138.18 crore.

The expenditure on providing basic services to the bustees has virtually increased a hundredfold. The water infrastructure development mean that bustees now have more in the way of piped water supply, better sewerage/drainage systems to access, better and improved lighting system, and better and longer metalled roads for the people to travel on.

The additional water supply lines measure 47,270 metres, the sewerage, 417,901 km, and roads, a whopping 857,083 km. There are now 113,854 modern latrines, and the ‘old’ hexagonal latrines are being converted to modern toilet facilities. A total of 24,829 lamp posts lit up the bustees.

 

Community halls have been set ‘up and running,’ the internal pathways of nearly all the bustees have been made into paved ones, whilst on the social side, thousands of mohalla-level communities have been set up to provide gainful employment through self-help and small-scale, plus job-linked training programmes. A BPL list has been published and is again been updated, along with a plan for minority development plan for the metro.

Other sectors where initiates have been set in place in the metro under the leadership of the Left-run KMC board are:

 

Health

Education

Roads

Disaster management, and

Acquisition of land with compensation/ rehabilitation

The past five years have seen the face of Kolkata change for the better. Much more remains to be done. Yet, to the eternal credit of the CPI(M) and the Left Front, the fact remains that the population overload of Kolkata is not increasing exponentially with more population flowing into the developing small and medium townships across Bengal. We shall look to a better Kolkata every time we look on her was how Bikash Bhattacharyya put it.

 

Bengal LEFT FRONT Calls for Stepping up of Campaign

THE Bengal Left Front has called upon its workers and supporters to step up campaign among the masses of the people to imprint the essential content of the civic polls – the defeat of the forces of reaction, sectarianism, anarchy, and separatism. In the process, the people must be involved in the struggle for the development of democracy and for peace and amity in Bengal.

This call emerged out of a recent meeting held at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on May 8 to take stock of the coming polls to 81 civic bodies on May 30. The bodies include both the Bidhannanagar (Salt Lake) municipality and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

The Bengal LF and the Bengal CPI(M) have allocated great weightage to door-to-door campaign and on neighbourhood-level smaller meetings rather than big rallies. The main issues that the campaign comprises are:

• 
  
  The anti-people and anti-poor policies of the Congress-run union government of which the Trinamul Congress is a ministerial constituent
• 
  
  The poor state of health of the nation under the present central dispensation
• 
  
  The increase in poverty
• 
  
  The lack of food security
• 
  
  The rise in unemployment
• 
  
  The anti-poor thrust of the general and railway budgets of the union government
• 
  
  The development of Bengal under the LF governance
• 
  
  The need to preserve democracy and allow democratic norms to flourish in the state

The Left Front campaigners have also pointed out that the in the present LF dispensation, the per capita funding of the urban bodies has been upto Rs 1500, a 1500 times increase from the Congress’s halcyon days. Apart from funding, the LF civic bodies have worked for the uplift of the poor, and have ensured balanced development of cities and semi-urban areas. Emphasis has been given to development of small and medium towns. Enormous and planned expenditure is exercised in urban health, water supply, sewerage and drainage, roads, parks and gardens, and lighting. Employment schemes for the urban poor are in place with a budgetary allocation of Rs 250 crore. The metropolis of Kolkata is being given a face-over but without loosing sight of the poor. The fly-overs and the Kalyani expressways have been supplanted in good measure with bustee re-housing and rehabilitation packages for the dispossessed.  

Biman Basu has called for the winning of seats in the civic bodies each with more than 50 per cent votes. An intensive campaign has been going on all over Bengal for the past month and the people have responded with a positive attitude to the campaign.

GRASSROOTS  MAHAJOT?

It has already been made amply clear that at the grassroots’ level the two principal opposition parties have come to an understanding with the scale weighed heavily against the thinning support base of the rudderless outfit called the Pradesh Congress. Subrata Mukherjee has gone over to Didi once again, pasty smile at the ready, or rather, yet once and then once again – making the switch over, magician like, for the fifth time. Would anyone care?

The ‘young’ faces that Rahul Gandhi chose to thrust in, some months back, into the morass of rightist Bengal politics, as the eponymous aam aadmi ka sipahis, have chosen to follow suit for, after all, is not the Trinamul Congress the ‘better’ of the two amir aadmi ka party -- with more in the way of muscle-based electoral prospects?

In ward 55 of the KMC, plumb in downtown Kolkata, where we have lived for ages now, the Trinamul Congress candidate would not hide the fact that his was a life ‘dedicated to ensuring a win for the Pradesh Congress candidate,’ and whose alias is ‘the Bomb’ for his explosive ways in his younger days. (BP)

'Elect Left Front to Continue Urban Development'

LEFT FRONT ELECTION MANIFESTOS RELEASED

By B Prasant

THE Bengal Left Front has appealed to the masses to vote in the Left Front in the May 30 municipal polls to continue urban development, to carry on the democratic flourishing, and to foil conspiratorial moves to disrupt the peaceful, amicable, and democratic ambience of Bengal.

Left Front chairman Biman Basu released the election manifesto of the Front at a press conference in Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on May 3. Like in the past, he also released a separate manifesto for the election to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The Left Front manifesto started by sketching in the anti-people scenario set up by the Congress run UPA 2 government of which Trinamul Congress is a partner. The civic polls were placed in the present complex national political situation, financial malfeasance, and economic crisis, where the burden of the amir aadmi was shifted with casual ease onto the groaning shoulders of the aam aadmi.

From bodies that were dying of funds and were run by officer-administrators, the urban local bodies under Left Front had become vibrant local self-governments with 50 per cent of the plan budget being decentralised for plan formulation and plan implementation. The allocation per citizen in the civic bodies stands now at Rs 200 as against less-than a rupee during the Congress regimes. The plan budget of around Rs 4900 crore for the urban local bodies by the LF government has resulted in appropriate improvement of urban facilities, and adequate participation of various citizen bodies over and above the elected commissioners/councillors/ward committees. This was democracy at work at the grassroots’ level, the manifesto underlined.

FOR KMC ELECTIONS

The Left Front chairman Biman Bose has appealed to the people of Kolkata to re-elect the pro-people Left Front in the coming polls to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in order to carry on the good work done by the present board. He was speaking to the media on May 3 at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in the presence of leaders of other LF constituents after releasing a separate election manifesto of the Left Front for the KMC.

Kolkata has been described as a miniature India with people of every description living peacefully together. With years, especially after the tragedies across the border to the east in 1947, 1965, and 1971, the population of the metro has continued to grow at a fast rate. The Left-run boards of the KMC, first elected to office in 1971, have been engaged in looking after the city, the denizens, and the cityscape with intimate care. Interspersed with Left governance has been Congress, and later, much later, the Trinamuli brand of uniquely destructive indulgence to loot and anarchy, with election results often reflecting the class composition of the city.

The metro houses billionaires by the hundreds – but at the heart of the city are the teeming millions of the toiling masses. One out of three citizens of Kolkata lives in bustees (slums). The Left has a set-piece policy for the bustees. It does not do away with them — it makes them habitable with supply of potable drinking water, sewerage and drainage systems and electricity.

Bikash Bhattacharyya, the incumbent mayor of Kolkata, was telling us the other day with a gleam of understandable satisfaction in his voice that not a single bustee remained in the metro now without a steady power supply — the series of lampposts from which shine bright orange light of sodium vapour lamp in the dense of the population of the Linton street area is one piece of evidence that bear Bikash up. Such examples abound as does the instance where pucca buildings were made available to the slum dwellers under the bustee improvement scheme.

Biman Basu said that just as the metro would not stand in the way of shopping arcades, the focus would be on improving the civic amenities of the toiling masses and the working people. The task has been made tougher than usual with the pro-rich slant of the union budget with its disparate tax structure, heavily biased against the poor. The counter-development legacy of the right reactionary-run boards of the KMC in the past has created a burden on the present board. Yet, whereas the previous board – a conglomerate of Pradesh Congress-Trinamul Congress-BJP, could create an asset of but Rs 499 crore, the present LF-led KMC has created an asset worth Rs 1900 crore.

The resent board has been run on a democratic basis. Each step and every decision has seen the participation of the board led by the mayor-in-council. This is in stark contrast to the anarchy that had prevailed during the previous board’s functioning where malfeasance and disorder were the expected norm rather than otherwise. Much has been achieved by the pro-people and pro-poor board the present KMC, and much remains to be done. Biman Basu called upon the electorate to vote in the Left Front with a big majority, defeating the forces of reaction.

COMING TO BLOWS

Meanwhile, throughout the day, April 28, Pradesh Congress goons were beating the heck out of each other over the puzzlesome query as to who was Didi to dictate terms for seat adjustments.

Interestingly enough, the Pradesh Congress vandals broke into the Pradesh Congress office on CIT Road near the Moulali crossing, wrecked large parts of the well-appointed office, and smashed up cars and mini-vans except that of one particular elderly, ex-college teacher, Pradesh leader.

Didi’s offices were virtually gheraoed by irate Trinamuli lumpens who would not have the ‘ticket’ given to a woman candidate politically close to a Pradesh Congress leader who in turn is a great practitioner of the law of turncoat.

LF Candidates Announced in KMC election

LEFT Front chairman Biman Basu announced early in the afternoon of April 17 names of the candidates put up by the Left Front for the corporation polls of the metropolis to be held on May 30.

The CPI(M) has put up 96 candidates, CPI 14, FB 11, RSP 10, M-FB, SP, DSP, RJD (LF supported) one each, and BBC and RCPI-- one each.

There are 92 new candidates or 65 per cent of the total. Most of the candidates are young. There are 67 women candidates who have been put up in seats over and above those reserved for women. Biman Basu said that the Left Front was satisfied with the working of the corporation in the present term that had started on and from 2005.

The present mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is a lawyer of note, is not contesting the polls this time, and Biman Basu clarified to say that the post of a legal authority was being thought of about him.(INN)

Redistribution of Land in Urban Areas Commences

THE Bengal Left Front government leads by far the rest of the state governments in terms of seizing ceiling-surplus land in rural areas and redistributing them amongst the poor.

Presently, a plan has been drawn up for a similar land redistribution among the poor and the needy, especially refugee families in the cities and townships.

The following are the chief characteristics of the programme:

• Refugee families would receive unconditional proprietorship of land
• The families who are not refugees but are living on refugee land shall receive long-term lease-based land rights
• Those of the urban poor who have been residing in unused khas land for two decades or more shall get proprietorship of the land plots at the cost Re one for a period of 99 years
• The thika tenancy act has been suitably modified to benefit the poor further
• Housing estates are built to provide shelter to the urban poor and for the people belonging to the lower-income groups
• It is now a legal right of the people living in slums and of the urban poor in general to claim benefits of better services and infrastructural facilities.(INN)

Maoists Kill SFI Leader in West Midnapore

ON April 4, goons of the Maoist-Trinamul combine took yet another life, this time of Comrade Partha Biswas, secretary of the Harda local committee of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. He was also the joint secretary of Belpahari zonal committee of the organisation.

In the evening on the day, armed Maoists surrounded Comrade Biswas, aged 25, in his village Malabati and fired two bullets in his head. A commerce graduate from Shilda College in West Midnapore, he had been active in organising the students in particular and the common people in general against the Maoist-Trinamul menace in Belpahari region. He had been vocal against the politics of killing the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress are pursuing.

Comrade Partha Biswas happens to be the fourth martyr of the SFI after the last Lok Sabha elections. Earlier, NDF fundamentalists had taken the life of Comrade A B Bijesh, a member of the Thrissur district secretariat of SFI in Kerala. In the district of West Midnapore alone in West Bengal, the Maoist-Trinamul combine had earlier killed two leading SFI comrades --- Comrade Abhijit Mahato and Comrade Tilak Tudu.

Comrade Partha Biswas was the tenth student who got killed in West Bengal after the parliamentary elections --- either by the Maoists or by the TMC.

In a statement issued on April 5, the SFI’s central executive committee strongly condemned the brutal killing of Comrade Partha Biswas and appealed to all the democratic minded people to isolate the proponents of such violence and killings. Dipping its banner of Independence, Democracy and Socialism in memory of Comrade Partha Biswas, the SFI CEC has called upon all its units to protest this heinous killing in all the campuses of the country. It has pledged to keep up the ideological political resistance to the bankrupt and reactionary politics of the self- styled Maoists who are killing the Left activists and supporters at the behest of the anti-Left alliance led by the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal. The SFI CEC has also extended heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Comrade Partha Biswas in this hour of tragic loss.(INN)

CHIDAMBARAM COMES A-VISITING BUT SKIPS MANGOLKOTE

KOLKATA: Besides West Bengal, the joint action force is operating in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Bihar to oust the ‘Maoist’ from this region.

To inspect this operation, readers will not fail to note, Chidambaram has chosen Lalgarh in Bengal as his place of visitation In relation to this it is to be noted that the now-hot-now-cold ‘ally’ of the central government the Trinamul Congress has been persistently condemning the role of the joint action forces’ drives.

On 3 April in Delhi, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata had a half-an hour meeting with Chidambaram. According to the central home ministry, Lalgarh has been chosen for the visit mainly for ‘security-related’ [?] reasons.

It is important to note that Andhra Pradesh is greatly affected by the ‘Maoist’ predicament. Nevertheless, none from the central home ministry much less than the home minister, has visited that state. On Thursday the home ministry claimed, much to Didi’s chagrin, to have been a ‘success’ in bringing down ‘Maoist’ activities under control, especially at Lalgarh thanks to the ops of the joint action force.

From 18 June of last year onwards, in the western part of Bengal, the joint action force has begun its work. Before this operation in Bengal, the joint force has been in operation in Chattisgarh. Later on, the joint action force has been in operation in Orissa and Jharkhand against the ‘Maoist’ brutality. No visits from the home ministry were warranted in these instances.

We recall how, to combat the ‘Maoist’ force, there had been a meeting organized by the central home ministry with the chief ministers of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar. The meeting was conducted in absence of the chief ministers of Bihar and Jharkhand. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee the chief minister of Bengal and the chief minister of Orissa Navin Pattanayak attended the meeting among others.

We note here how the state Left Front government came to know about this ‘surprise’ visit of the home minister at the last possible moment. The present call of Chidambaram is merely for political reasons and this is the view of the mass of the people of Bengal and beyond. Through this visit, the Pradesh Congress wants to gain electoral mileage before the next and upcoming civic election.

Nonetheless it is interesting that despite tall promises and much drumming up of the political kind by the rainbow opposition here in Bengal, Chidambaram has nay’ed visits to those villages of Mangolkote in Burdwan where Trinamulis and Congressites have jointly carried on bloody and murderous assaults on both the CPI (M) leadership and the CPI (M) workers. (B PRASANT)

Two new faces in Bengal LF ministry

KOLKATA, 6th APRIL, 2010:  Soumendranath Bera, CPI(M) legislator from Purshura, and Dasharath Tirkey, RSP legislator from Kumargram, were sworn in to the state Cabinet by Governor M K Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, along with his Cabinet colleagues, was present on the occasion. Chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty, home secretary Ardhendu Sen, DGP Bhupinder Singh, LF Chairman Biman Basu and several other dignitaries were present at the swearing-in ceremony.With the induction of the two ministers, the strength of the Cabinet now stands at 45.

 The Congress and the Trinamool Congress, meanwhile, boycotted the function. While the Trinamool skipped the function in pursuance of its policy of avoiding the chief minister on all forums, the Congress said it was not invited. “Why should we go there if we are not invited?” said Manas Bhuina, Congress Legislature Party leader.

With the daunting task of improving his party’s chances in the upcoming civic polls and 2011 Assembly elections, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has finally appointed a deputy in the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs in order to focus on party activities and other issues plaguing the state. Interestingly, the CM held this portfolio since the time Left Front came to power in 1977.

Forty-seven-year-old Dr Saumendranath Bera, also known as Anjan, a Professor of Journalism in Calcutta University, was sworn in as Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs (I & CA) on Tuesday. On being inducted as a minister, Bera said: “I have just taken charge today. Let me settle down first and then I will talk.”

CPI(M) state secretariat member Rabin Deb said: “Bera was taken in place of former power minister Mrinal Banerjee who passed away recently. Of course, we also wanted to take a major workload off the CM’s shoulders as he is our main campaigner for the upcoming polls.”

A party leader said: “With the Maoist menace becoming a serious law and order problem, the CM will have to devote more time to the home ministry. Also, with the elections around the corner, he will have to crisscross the state and campaign for the party. That is the other reason for inducting Bera.” “It is for the chief minister, who is also the minister in-charge of the department, to delegate the powers. But it seems that Bera will have to take the entire charge of the department just like the way Abdus Satar of minority affairs department does,” an official of I & CA department said.

Eldest son of Bishnu Bera, who was also a CPI(M) legislator, Saumendranath completed his graduation from Bangabashi College, Kolkata, and later did his Masters in Journalism from Calcutta University. Now, a professor in the same university, he is associated with various academic committees.

DOCTORS FOR PANCHAYATS IN BENGAL

KOLKATA(INN): The Bengal Left Front government has put in at the service of the rural people close to one thousand more doctors. This is in addition to the several thousands of medical practitioners already set in place in the villages, especially in the remote areas.

There shall now be at least one fully qualified doctor per Panchayat. The move, we strongly believe, shall take the state government ever-closer to the rural masses as an ongoing process of pro-people action. The state government has been of the view that the residences of the doctors should be close to the place of work for benefits that shall be two-way.

It is mortifying to note that all districts except south 24 Parganas – where the Zillah Parishad is controlled by Didi’s men – had put in the requisition forms for the number of doctors they would like to have, mentioning in the process the gaps and lacunae at the level of the villages. Thus, south 24 Parganas shall be bereft of the additional component of medical practitioners, this time around.

The process of how the villages themselves fix requirement quota for doctors is interesting enough to cite as an example of people’s power. There is a committee at the level of the Panchayat samity. The Sabhapati of the Panchayat Samity chairs the committee; the Block Development Officer is the convener. The committee includes such other functionaries as the Karmadhyakhsha of the mass health committee; the Pradhans of the concerned Gram Panchayats; the Block medical Officer; and an experienced medical practitioner.

This committee sits and decides on how many health officers are required where. The work follows the rural health mission guidelines. Interestingly, the medical practitioners/doctors being posted include allopath doctors, homeopaths, yunani practitioners, and ayurvedic doctors.

(B PRASANT)

BENGAL CPI (M) CALLS FOR A SWEEPING WIN FOR LEFT FRONT IN CIVIC POLLS

KOLKATA(INN): The Bengal units of the CPI (M) and the Left Front have called for a convincing win for the LF candidates in the 81 municipal bodies that go to the polls in June later this year. The bodies include the Kolkata Corporation and the Salt Lake municipality.

Both have LF boards albeit by a thin margin. The LF is in control of the majority of the municipalities in Bengal. The Bengal Left Front has drawn attention to the unprecedented work in urban development that could be organised and piloted by the LF-led boards.

This time around, as in the past the campaign preceding the polls must also focus on the developmental work done by the Left Front government and also draw attention to the way in which the CPI (M) and the Left Front had stood by the mass of the people in all circumstances, in adversity and in happiness.

The Bengal Left Front has decided that the nominees for the post of the councillor must work full time for the civic body they are elected to and they must devote a large slice of time in the task of interaction with the masses-- deeply and widely as in the past decades.

(B PRASANT)

TRINAMUL MP ‘RESIGNS’ VIA TEXT MESSAGE; HAS SECOND THOUGHTS AGAIN, AND THEN, AGAIN

KOLKATA, 31st MARCH-One remembers the SMS-resigned MP from that unique outfit (called the Didi’s faction even today in Pradesh Congress circles, and beyond,) and the latest name of this worthy is ‘Kabir’ Suman neé Suman Chatterjee, as the crude face of the reactionary right/sectarian left (choose both in his case, please) who ‘wanted to be happy each morning only if he saw five CPI (M) heads rolling by,’ and called for ‘death to all CPI (M) workers.’

On 29 March he sent forth a text message to Didi expressing his desire not to continue with his membership of the Lok Sabha. He then called a media conference where he said in so many words the following about the outfit he was so enamoured of even till 28 March:

• Trinamul Congress is filled with people of the light-fingered brigade whom he called the ‘eaters’ or khaobadi to rhyme perhaps with his own brand of Maobadi

• He, Suman, has been meted out great dollops of insults by Didi’s men everywhere he goes

• The outfit would not allow him to provide direct employment to his personal brigade of goons, the ill-gotten task having to be routed through Didi, perhaps, he would not clarify despite goading

• He loves the Maoists and has composed a song dedicated to the criminal Chhatradhar Mahato (presently languishing in jail custody on several murder charges), and the outfit would not give it publicity (i.e., would not get the CD sold under that outfit’s banner, how sad)

• He is always superseded by men who would serve him ‘tea and biscuits’ at his call when he, Suman was Didi’s man and not a ‘mere’ common-or-garden MP.

Then the Patrika group swung into action

• First the resigned MP said that he would send in a formal letter of resignation but never did

• Then he was made to say that he will go to the people and not the Lok Sabha.

• Finally today 31 March he has declared that he would ‘reconsider’ his decision to resign, which in fact he has never done, formally speaking.

We may only conclude with a popular saying dating back from colonial Bengal when the poor people here would often have cause to carp about the pro-British Bengali middle class (babus) and say ‘are they mad or simply devilish?’ The aphorism is appropriate here, we do believe.  

(B PRASNAT)

BIMAN BASU ON KANU SANYAL

KOLKATA: When the news that Kanu Sanyal (b. 1932) who had been one of the organisers of the Naxalbari movement in the mid-1960s had died after choosing to take his own life, Biman Basu reacted to the news and spoke to PD, at length.

Biman Basu recalled that Sanyal had started his life in the Communist Party from years prior to 1947 and that he maintained direct relations with the common people, especially with the kisans. In the post-1947 years and decades, Sanyal worked tirelessly for the masses.

Subsequently, in 1967, Sanyal switched to Left sectarian politics. Sanyal, said the CPI (M) Bengal state secretary, was the one of the early organisers of the Naxalbari movement and the CPI (M-L). The CPI (M) leader clarified to say that though Sanyal chose to remain with his brand of left sectarian political outlook and activities, he “was gradually undergoing a political change”.

Sanyal, said Biman Basu, started to face and judge issues based on reason, and very recently, when the ‘Maoist’ menace started to take shape in the Bengal political scene, Sanyal had remarked, echoing Mao Ze Dong that there was ‘nothing called ‘Maoism.’ Sanyal also agreed with the notion that there was a Communist Party of China and that what Mao practised was Marxism-Leninism. That was Sanyal’s firm stand to the last.

“During the last couple of years”, Biman Basu said, “We have noted that whenever slogans were raised against imperialism and communalism, he and his party, the COI (M-L) associated themselves with the Left and democratic forces.

On a number of occasions, Biman Basu recalled, how “we worked with Kanu Sanyal in the city Kolkata against imperil aim and communalism.

“We,” continued the Bengal CPI (M) secretary, “also had had a discussion with him but that session did not materialise into anything fruitful.

Biman Basu concluded to say, “Sanyal’s demise and the report of how he had ended his life life, is sad. Nevertheless, we must ponder over the austere life he led at Hatighisha in a remote part of the terai region, and the way he chose to stick to his own conviction, and this is really something from which we are to learn the correct lessons.” (B PRASANT)

Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal commits ‘suicide’

Siliguri, March 23 (PTI): Former Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal allegedly hung himself to death at his home near Siliguri on Tuesday. Sanyal, 78, was suffering from kidney-related ailments.

Sanyal, was found hanging in his room at his residence in Seftullajote village, 25km from here, inspector-general of police (North Bengal) K.L. Tamta said.

At the time of his death, he was general secretary of a new CPI (Marxist-Leninist) group, formed by the merger of several splinter groups of the original party.

Along with co-chairman Charu Mazumdar and Jungal Santhal, Sanyal formed the dreaded triad that gave birth to the Naxalbari movement. The movement in the later years had transformed into an even bloodier Maoist struggle but he had openly disapproved of the strategy of armed struggle after his release from jail in 1977.

The trio spearheaded the movement, which began with a peasant uprising at Naxalbari, a small village, on May 25, 1967, in north Bengal.

The then officer-in-charge of Phansidewa police station Amarendranath Pyne was killed by an arrow shot by the Naxalites, as they came to be known, thus starting a series of killings of landowners, policemen and those associated with the establishment.

Sanyal had even actively solicited help from the communist government in China to further his goals, but it could never be established whether this was moral, tactical or financial.

He was a critic of land acquisition by the Left Front government in Singur and Nandigram and criticised it calling it capitalist.

ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE IN THE BENGAL BUDGET

KOLKATA(INN): The budget placed in the Assembly for 2010-1011 by the state LF government’s Finance Minister, Dr Asim Dasgupta makes a precise policy statement that permeates the budget.

Dr Dasgupta notes that in the environment of the price rise affecting the country, the welfare role of the state government, operating as it does in a limited power framework, has to be strengthened.

The main direction of the budget is thus to increase generation of employment and the income of the common people, especially the poorest of the poor.

Production has to be increased and to increase the production in agriculture and industry must be done in such a manner that employment and income of the mass of the people shall ne widely increased, special focus being on minority communities, backward classes and women.

In the case of agriculture, land reforms shall continue creating more opportunities for the poor kisans and lessening whatever remains of monopoly control in the countryside. Dasgupta maintained that the highest employment generation in the rural area continued to be from the land plots of small and marginal farmers, a thesis we recall he had propounded at a seminar way back in 1985 as a member of the state planning board.

Acquisition homestead land for the poor kisans will continue. Irrigation facilities shall increase further along with use of improved seeds, organic and bio-fertilisers, and newer agricultural techniques. The rate of growth of the state-level GDP has gone up to 4.2% as compared to (-) 0.2% for the country as a whole.

Production of cereals and lentils as well as vegetables and fish and fruits has increased as an ongoing process. The plan outlay for agriculture has been fixed as Rs 228 crore from Rs 178 crore in the last FY.

The allocation for irrigation has been increased, as has been that for forestry. The credit system for the rural banks has been made more user-friendly with adequacy of funds flow. The procurement price for agricultural products has bee widened. The average daily wage rate in the villages has gone up to Rs 83 and is increasing further.

With the demand emanating from the internal market, including a powerful rural market, increasing. Industrial development has grown apace. The potential for a take-off has been created for sectors related to small, medium, and large industries.

The investment last year in the industrial sector, Rs 7000-odd crore has been realised from 121 industrial units and has created more than 45,000 additional employments.

However, in the realm of employment generation, the self-help groups that number 10.46 lakhs top the list. They have created an additional 3.5 lakh employment last year.

Other highlights of the budget are:

• Poor APL people supplied with rice at Rs 2 per kilo

• Wage for unemployed workers of closed units increased

• An additional 44 sector workers added to the pool of unorganised workers’ benefits

• Minorities’ development budget head has been doubled

• Assistant teachers, para teachers’’ pay increased

• Newer employment schemes in the cities in the pattern of rural employment planning

• 4200 additional schools to be set up

In concluding his budget statement, Dr Asim Dasgupta said that in the path of development being chalked out by the Left Front government from 1977, the honour and privileges of the mass of the people had always been held high. The masses shall overcome as always the obstacles created by the urban and rural stakes, and the ‘people shall create history’ in the days ahead. (B PRASANT)