SITARAM YECHURY CALLS FOR CHANGE AT THE CENTRE IN FAVOUR OF THE THIRD FRONT

RANIGANJ (BURDWAN): ‘We need new governance for a new India,’ said CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury at Ranigunj right amidst the coal belt of Bengal. He was addressing a mass rally in the afternoon of 1st May.

REJECT ‘GADDI HASIL’ POLITICS
The entire country is now poised to throw out the ‘gaddi hasil’ brand of politics in favour of popular governance. The new government shall have people’s welfare as the locus of its policies. The certainty of the Third Front assuming control in Delhi, post election, was becoming clearer every day.

Held at the large Sihrasole grounds, the rally saw participation in their thousands of both coal mine workers and workers in the unorganised sectors, in particular. There was also a large number of adivasis who came in their traditional dressage and raised a storm of kettle drum beats.

TWO INDIAS
Sitaram Yechury said that at present a ‘Chamakta hua Bharat’ was confronted by a ‘tadapta hua Bharat.’ In the former, ‘shining,’ India, a few people and families concentrated in their hands of massive amount of wealth. More billionaires exist in that India than even in the rich and developed nation of Japan.

In the suffering India, 75% of Indians cannot have Rs 20 per day as income. Every day, 1000 children die. 755 of the mothers are the victims of anaemia. One crore of Indians have been thrown out of employment as a consequence of the big depression worldwide. The jobs of five crore more are under serious threat. In Surat in Gujarat 71 workers have taken their own lives. The textile workers sell their kidneys to survive. ‘We want a change of this India,’ said the speaker.

NEW FORMATIONS
Sitaram Yechury said that the secular formations were coming together in a new way. On the eastern coast of the country, the alliance partners have left the BJP. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Bilas Paswan have created a separate morcha. The Third force will become stronger after the elections are over. Sitaram Yechury recalled to the mind of the politically conscious Bengali the words of Gopal Krishna Gokhale: what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.

LF TO SHOW THE WAY
The Left Front government is established in Bengal after winning seven consecutive elections. Bengal shows the way to the future for the rest of the country. Sitaram Yechury called for a massive electoral triumph of the LF-nominated CPI (M) candidate from the constituency, and a sitting MP, Bangsa Gopal Chaudhuri. Other who addressed the rally besides Bangsa Gopal was CPI leader and MP, R C Singh.

PM DR MANMOHAN SINGH VS CONGRESS LEADER DR MANMOHAN SINGH

KOLKATA,2nd May: Dr Manmohan Singh addressed a Congress rally in Howrah on 1st May and said that ‘recently the Congress has published a report card on the working of the Bengal government with which I tend to agree, and it is shown there that Bengal has dropped back in various developmental activities.’

The same Dr Manmohan Singh had said on 12 January, 2005 while in Kolkata that ‘when I see newspapers call Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee the best chief minister in the country, I am not surprised. I agree with this statement. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his government are working away with courage, with the heart in the right place, and with intelligence. This is what is needed for the development of the nation. Bengal is about to re-claim the position of leadership in the country.’

Need one add anything more?

MINE BLAST BY ‘MAOISTS’ AT JAMBANI CLAIMS LIVES OF THREE POLL WORKERS

MIDNAPORE(INN): When we reached the spot at a remote corner of Jambani in Midnapore west, where an improvised explosive device or IED detonation buried in a desolate part of the road leading to Jhargram town, had taken place post-poll in the evening of 30 April, and we were met with the combined reek of blasting powder, of human remains -- the bodies were scattered over a half-a-kilometre radius -- and with the smell of death.

LAST WORDS
Prasada Bandyopadhyay, polling work completed, rang up his ailing and elderly father telling him that everything was all right and that he was well on his way home, and then he asked of his three-year old daughter to ‘tell mummy to have some food ready.’ He had hardly beeped off his cell phone when the word turned topsy-turvy for the Bandyopadhyay family.

The IED exploded with ferocious impact on the jeep Prasada and two of his colleagues Sougata including the chauffeur Sanjay Das were travelling in. We found little evidence of the vehicle other than a few steel parts from the engine. The body parts were flung as high as the flowering Palash trees crowding both sides of the metalled road, trees that reached out 40 feet into the sky. A ‘Maoist’ leaflet later clamed with glee that they had exploded the devices and that ‘many more deaths would follow.’

HUMAN TRAGEDY
What is tragic is the fact that Prasada who was computer software engineers, and his men innocently believed in -- and that cost them their lives-- what the ‘Maoist’ posters had earlier proclaimed in the jangal mahal that: ‘we shall only kill police personnel and not the civilian populace.’ Does one believe the cruel criminal, the merciless and opportunistic hunter of men and women, the social evil incarnate, and the people on the dangerous lunatic fringe?

As we had reported earlier, the presence of the fourth component during what was purported to be a tripartite meeting that the CEO Bengal took with the Maoist backed ‘people’ committee,’ upset all equations, leaking in profusion the poll arrangements to the criminals and the killers. A slip meant the death of three men, and a dirge-like impact on their family units, especially as all three men who mat such a cruel end on the line of duty were the only earners in their household units.

NO REACTION FROM OPPOSITION
Expectedly, none of the opposition political groupings, none of the foreign-funded ‘democracy-mad’ NGOs, none of the members of the ‘civil society’ would deign to utter a single word in empathy for the departed and for those the murdered left behind.

Earlier, last October, a similar IED blast had left a doctor Dhaniram Mandi, a nurse, Bharati Mandi, and the chauffeur Pranay Mishir, dead much in the same spot. It is believed by the local Party unit that the same gang had brought about the latest detonation and that they operate out of a remote forest area of Jharkhand across the porous border.

Socio-Economic Development of West Bengal to continue:Chief Minister

KOLKATA: A meeting on “Socio-Economic Development of West Bengal” organized by Calcutta Citizens’ Initiative (CCI) was held on 28th April,Tuesday at G.D. Birla Sabhagar. The main speaker was Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal. People from various walks of life, joined the meeting including Shri R M Kapoor (Town Planner), Shri Subodh Sarkar (Poet), Shri Barry O’Brien (Journalist), Shri Sunil Das (Painter), Prof Suren Munshi (Academia); Dr S K Sharma (Radiologist) and Prof Dipankar Dasgupta (Economist). They appreciated the work of the State Government and expressed their solidarity for the developmental steps being taken.

The CM held out hope that mega projects announced earlier such as the numerous steel plants and petrochem hub were bound to come up, despite pressures induced by the global economic meltdown. “I just can’t accept the Opposition position. They are opposing everything, even the extension of national highways and acquisition of land for a thermal power plant at Katwa. But, I accept the challenge since I believe in people power and not muscle power,” Bhattacharjee told a gathering at the G D Birla Sabhagar, which also included Nicco’s Rajive Kaul and Titagarh Wagon’s J P Chowdhary from the industrialist fraternity.

“I have spoken to Sajjan Jindal and he has assured me that the JSW plant would definitely come up despite the problems in raising funds from banks at the moment,” the CM added. Bhattacharjee — whose industrialization policies had helped disparate Opposition parties to join hands — said his government had taken lessons from the mistakes committed earlier in acquiring land. “Our intention was not bad. I have no personal preference for cars. All I wanted to see was the smiling faces of thousands of workers at Singur. We wanted to make Nandigram another Haldia. But the Opposition played a destructive role,” he asserted.

However, the state was in the process of setting up a land bank — largely comprising fallow land — at a cost of Rs 500 crore to ensure that plots could be handed over to companies quicker. A rehabilitation package was also being drawn up for affected landlosers. “We are negotiating with a Czech company for a mass rapid transit system,” he added.

Shri Shishir Bajoria, President of CCI urged the citizens to take a pro active role in the overall growth. In the beginning Shri Narayan Jain in his welcome address pointed out the low polling taking place in Kolkata and urged all eligible voters to cast their vote in the ensuing Parliamentary elections without any fear. Mr Jain further emphasised that "We need to appreciate that behind efforts for setting up industry, the major thurst has been creation of job opportunity for youth, which is the need today. These realities need to be appreciated by all including other political parties and cross section of society. Positive attitude is desirable for fast growth of the State."

On the occasion Justice B.L. Jain former Judge of Calcutta High Court, Shri Buddhadeb Guha, Smt. Diplai Bhattacharya, Shri Samir Dutt, Shri Mahesh Shah, Shri Wasim Kapoor were also present.

Earlier, other speakers invited at the programme said the electorate should teach the Opposition a lesson for its negative brand of politics. “We have to ensure that agitational politics is washed away from the shores of West Bengal,” town planner R M Kapoor said. “The intellectuals who are seeking change through hoardings should have the courage to specify what change they want,” painter Sunil Das said.

Three killed in West Bengal blast

KOLKATA,30th April: Three persons were killed when a vehicle in which polling personnel were returning from duty blew up in a landmine explosion in the Jamboni area of West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on Thursday. The incident occurred shortly after elections in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, in the first of the three phases in the State, passed off without any major incident of violence.

The site of the blast is in the southwest of the State — a region that has been the scene of Maoist activity in recent times and where the call by extremists for a poll boycott evoked partial response.The victims were two sector officers and the driver of the vehicle, District Magistrate, N.S. Nigam, told mediapersons.

Another tragedy was averted when explosives was recovered from under a culvert over which polling personnel and security forces were to pass in the Barabazar area of Purulia district. The voter turnout in the day’s polls spanning nine districts including north Bengal was more than 65 per cent. There was no voting in 93 booths.

“Polling was largely free and fair. There was no report of any major untoward incident,” Debashis Sen, Chief Electoral Officer, said. Voting was moderately heavy, particularly in the hill area of the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency.

INSINUATIONS AGAINST BENGAL LF: People Shall Give A Befitting Reply

Weekly Editorial

India News Network

New Delhi, April 30, 2009: A quarter century ago, Rajiv Gandhi, as India's prime minister, had infamously commented, “Calcutta is a dying city”. This affront against all that Bengal had contributed to the building of modern India and all that it stands for today has been rebuffed by the people of Bengal at every opportunity during this quarter century. Today, his son, and Congress general secretary, echoing his father says: “This Communist government has forgotten the poor.

And, instead of taking the state ahead, in the past thirty years, it has taken it at least thirty years backward”. He proceeded further to compare the levels of poverty in Bengal with those in Kalahandi in Orissa, parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Such absurd assertions can only come from those who pay a breezy whistle stop daylong tour by helicopters without planting their feet firmly on the ground.

The ground realities of Purulia, the area in Bengal referred to, compare more favourably, not only to the places referred to in Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but also with Rae Bareily and Amethi, represented by the Congress president and the general secretary.The Congress president, in turn, made disparaging remarks about the misuse of central funds in Bengal, levelling charges of corruption and diversion of such funds. Strange, that such charges come from the leader of the party that indulged in the worst form of political immorality with the unprecedented display of currency notes in the parliament used for buying votes to win the trust motion of the Manmohan Singh government after the Left withdrew support with the UPA's surrender to US imperialism on the nuclear deal! A common refrain has been that the Left Front government in Bengal had not efficiently utilized the funds allocated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.

The Bengal Left Front government had written to the central government that the works permitted by the NREGA were designed primarily for the arid and semi-arid areas in the country and are, therefore, not suited for such places like Bengal which have very high rainfall. The West Bengal government, therefore, had asked for permission to employ people under this scheme for works that are already permitted under various centrally sponsored schemes. This listed special irrigation and land improvement packages that include land levelling, farm bunding, fruit trees and fodder plantation, creating farm ponds, producing low cost mud bricks etc. Such works are more suitable for climatic conditions of areas like Bengal.

The central government, however, refused to permit the West Bengal government from undertaking such works under the NREGA. It is the UPA government, therefore, which is responsible for not permitting the efficient and exhaustive usage of the NREGA funds in Bengal. Thus, despite the unsubstantiated attacks by the Congress leaders that the Left Front government did not give `job cards' to “lakhs of poor farmers”, the fact remains that the West Bengal government has, by now, given 95 lakh job cards to deserving poor people. All over the country, so far only 4 crore job cards have been given. In other words, West Bengal, which accounts for 8 per cent of the country's population, has distributed 25 per cent of all job cards distributed in the country.

Let us take a look at the canards being spread against the Left Front on the issue of economic development in the state. In the period of neo-liberal economic reforms, during the decade between 1993 to 2003 (the last year for which authoritative data is available) the average growth of net state domestic product was 7.10 per cent – the highest amongst the sixteen big states in India. This is well ahead of the media favorites like Maharashtra (4.74 per cent), Gujarat (5.87 per cent), Karnataka (6.27 per cent) Andhra Pradesh (5.27 per cent) and Tamilnadu (5.24 per cent). This is from a study done by the Centre for Policy Alternatives quoting statistics from the Central Statistical Organisation, the Economic Survey and RBI bulletins. Studies by the World Bank and by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, earlier, corroborate such findings.In terms of per capita income, West Bengal has registered an average growth of 5.51 percent as opposed to the national average of 4.01 per cent.

This has happened despite the fact that the annual population growth was 1.64, much higher than the highflying states like Tamilnadu (1.06). The study notes “without doubt, the seemingly uncontrollable and unabated migration, particularly from Bangladesh but also from Nepal and neighbouring states like Bihar and Orissa, has contributed to this relatively high growth of population. Whatever are the reasons for this we can only surmise that the rise in per capita income could have been higher if there had been no population influx into Bengal.”The more significant aspect of West Bengal’s performance is the fact that this is a growth led by agriculture in complete contrast to the national experience, thus making it the most effective example of `inclusive growth'.

Land reforms are often seen purely from the humanitarian aspect of providing a source of livelihood for those who otherwise have none. This is definitely an important aspect. But a proper rational land distribution also contributes to a growth in productivity (both land and labour) and enhances the purchasing power in the hands of a vast majority of the people who are otherwise excluded from the market. All these three aspects are visible in Bengal today. Nearly 13 lakh acres of agricultural land was acquired by the Left Front government and distributed to the landless poor (This process continues even today). Nearly 25 lakhs of people have benefited as a result. Even if one were to assume the value of one acre of land to be a conservative Rs 10 lakhs, then this land distribution amounts to Rs 1 lakh 30 thousand crores of worth of resource transfer from the rich to the poor. Such a massive redistribution of wealth has contributed to making West Bengal the fastest growing rural economy today.

In addition, nearly 20 lakh sharecroppers have been recorded; meaning that the landlord cannot now evict them. They have also been conferred hereditary rights to cultivation. Combined, these two measures have radically transformed the lives of nearly 50 lakh individuals or nearly two and half to 3 crores of people if we include their families.West Bengal is the third most intensely agricultural state in India with 76.61 per cent of its land under cultivation. However, only 28.1 of this is irrigated, unlike say Punjab which has 89.72 per cent, thanks to central projects like the Bhakra Nangal dam, the like of which are denied to Bengal. Despite this, Bengal today has the third highest average yield in India and its volume of foodgrains production is also third after Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (undivided; because of its sheer size not productivity).

Today it is the country’s largest producer of rice. In the early eighties the per capita net agricultural product in West Bengal was 18 per cent lower than the national average. Today it stands over 10 per cent higher than the national average.Despite such hard facts which explain the reality why the people of Bengal continue to repose faith in the Left Front in over seven general elections over the last three decades, the Congress leaders, in their legally new-established company with the Trinamul Congress, continue to parrot the so-called `misrule' of the Left Front. In any democracy, the people will elect that political party, which, in their opinion, is best, suited to improve their quality of life. By this yardstick, the unprecedented re-election of the Left Front in Bengal, for over three decades, must inform all of us that the people continue to repose faith in the Left Front because of the improvements that they have seen in their quality of life. This fact was often sought to be negated in the past by hurling charges of `scientific rigging'. Succumbing to such unfounded charges, the Election Commission in the 2006 elections to the state Assembly, decided to conduct them in five phases by drawing security forces and electoral personnel from outside Bengal as the local people were allegedly `pro-CPI (M)'.

At that stage, we had told the Election Commission that as long as they do not bring voters from outside Bengal, no one could defeat the Left Front! The 2006 results hailed by all, including the Trinamul chief Mamta Banerjee as being completely free and fair, gave the Left Front a larger than two-third majority in the Assembly. Thus, saying that the Left Front subjected Bengal to a three-decade long misrule is tantamount to insulting the people of Bengal and the electoral choices that they have made on the basis of their experiences. Bengal's electorate, shall, once again, reply to such insinuations in as appropriate a manner as they had done in the past.

Stray Terror in West Bengal First Phase

People Voting in Lalgarh Saradamani School

Kolkata, 30th April- Incidents of violence, Maoist terror and intimidation marred the voting process in some parts of West Bengal, in the first phase. 14 seats went to polls on Thursday,in northern and western part of the state. The general voting trend was, however, peaceful and large number of voters exercised their right in most of the constituencies.

Maoists called for vote boycott and to enforce this created an atmosphere of terror in remote villages of Purulia district. In the morning, landmine blasts created panic in some areas of Bandwan and Balarampur areas resulting in low turn out. Two Border Security Force jawans were injured in the blast triggered by at Biramdih in Purulia district.In Lalgarh and Shalboni, the areas seized by the Maoist-backed forces, election commission and administration arranged buses to carry voters in the four centres as determined.

But the Maoists have not allowed the voters to come and there was very low turnout. In these areas as many as seven CPI(M) leaders and activists were killed during election campaign.In three sub divisions in the hills, the polling was not free and fair in many areas due to intimidation by Gorkha Janamukti morcha in support of BJP candidate.The polling was otherwise more or less peaceful in most of the constituencies.

There was no major incident in Midnapore, Bankura,two seats in Maldaha, Coochbehar, Balurghat.In Ghatal, where CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta is contesting, Trinamool Congress candidate slapped a polling official.“The people of the state braved the terror and voted in a determined fashion,” Biman Basu, Chairman of Left Front said at a press conference in this evening.

Emami to invest Rs 2,200 cr in Bengal paper plant

Kolkata: The Rs 2,000-crore Emami Group is planning to invest Rs 2,200 crore for setting up a high-end writing and printing paper manufacturing plant at Kultikri in West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

The 200,000-tonne-a-year unit, to be developed by group company Emami Paper Mills Limited, would be completed within three and a half years from zero date, according to Mr P.S. Patwari, Executive Director of the company. The 1,415 acres required to set up the plant would be acquired within a year, he said.

Emami Paper Mills signed a memorandum of agreement here on Friday with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for implementing the project. The State Government would provide nearly a half of the required land (vested land of nearly 700 acres), while Emami has to acquire the rest, West Bengal Chief Minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said after the agreement signing ceremony. All land to be acquired in the area is barren, Mr R.S. Agarwal, Joint Chairman of Emami Group, said.

“The paper mill project, one of the biggest in India, is expected to generate substantial employment,” the Chief Minister said. Nearly 8,000 people will be directly or indirectly employed in the project, West Bengal Industrial Secretary Mr Sabyasachi Sen told presspersons on the sidelines of the programme.

The Irrigation Department has agreed to supply water from the Subarnarekha, he said, while pointing out that the used water will be released into the river after recycling through canals. The plant would consume nearly 75,000 cubic metre of water daily while its coal intake would be two lakh tonnes a year. The wood pulp required as raw material would be supplied by the West Bengal Forest Department.

TRINAMULIS KILL CPI (M) WORKERS AT HARIPAL, HOOGHLY

HARIPAL(HOOGHLY): Bharati Mukherjee, CPI (M) MLA from Haripal cannot yet get over the horror of the event, the beating up, and the final, agonising death – of a CPI (M) worker, comrade Bhaben Deeg, a member of the Haripal-II local committee. The rally that Bharati addressed at Haripur at Haripal in Hooghly district was large and as usual, a big part of the assemblage was women. The success of any CPI (M) rally makes a burn-out case of Trinamulis, always. The Haripal rally was no exception.

Bharati was later to tell us that from the beginning one Labanya Deeg, a staunch Trinamuli, started to blare out piercing music from powerful speakers during the rally from his shop nearby. This irritated the people no end, and a few CPI (M) workers approached Labanya’s shop and asked him at least to tone down the volume.

They were met with choicest of expletives. Seeing that the mass of the people were becoming angry, Bhaben, a comrade of calm disposition and great experience, went to the shop-owner and tried to reason it out with him.

A clutch of Trinamuli workers who were inside the shop suddenly came out and started to beat up comrade Bhaben till he was a bloody pulp, and very dead. The Party leadership brought the situation under control as the villagers by then had surrounded the Trinamulis and the latter, cowering, feared the worst. Zonal secretary of the CPI (M) Dulal Bhowmick called upon the CPI (M) workers not to loose control, even as they tearfully bade farewell to comrade Bhaben Deeg later.

Industry well on track: CM

KOLKATA, 29 Apr. 2009: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday fell back on his biggest USP the promise of fast-tracking industrialization to drum up support for the Left ahead of elections to 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bengal which would be held on Thursday. Addressing a meeting of the Calcutta Citizens' Initiative an association of eminent individuals from different streams, including a few mid-rung industrialists just 48 hours before the poll bugle is sounded in the state, the CM held out hope that mega projects announced earlier such as the numerous steel plants and petrochem hub were bound to come up, despite pressures induced by the global economic meltdown.

"I just can't accept the Opposition position. They are opposing everything, even the extension of national highways and acquisition of land for a thermal power plant at Katwa. But, I accept the challenge since I believe in people power and not muscle power," Bhattacharjee told a gathering at the G D Birla Sabhagar, which also included Nicco's Rajive Kaul and Titagarh Wagon's J P Chowdhary from the industrialist fraternity. "I have spoken to Sajjan Jindal and he has assured me that the JSW plant would definitely come up despite the problems in raising funds from banks at the moment," the CM added.

Incidentally, Jindal has already gone on record that the proposed 10-million tonne plant at Salboni, which was originally supposed to entail an investment of Rs 35,000 crore, could be delayed because of the current tough economic climate. Bhattacharjee whose industrialization policies had helped disparate Opposition parties to join hands said his government had taken lessons from the mistakes committed earlier in acquiring land. "Our intention was not bad. I have no personal preference for cars. All I wanted to see was the smiling faces of thousands of workers at Singur. We wanted to make Nandigram another Haldia. But the Opposition played a destructive role," he asserted.

However, the state was in the process of setting up a land bank largely comprising fallow land at a cost of Rs 500 crore to ensure that plots could be handed over to companies quicker. A rehabilitation package was also being drawn up for affected landlosers. "We are negotiating with a Czech company for a mass rapid transit system," he added.

Earlier, other speakers invited at the programme said the electorate should teach the Opposition a lesson for its negative brand of politics. "We have to ensure that agitational politics is washed away from the shores of West Bengal," town planner R M Kapoor said. "The intellectuals who are seeking change through hoardings should have the courage to specify what change they want," painter Sunil Das said.

Brinda Karat returns Sonia barb

MALDA,29 Apr 2009: Reacting to Sonia Gandhi's comments against the Left Front government in Bengal the day before, Brinda Karat tore into the Congress at rallies in Malda and Gajole on Tuesday. "Before criticizing the Bengal government, Sonia Gandhi must answer why a farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in Maharashtra after so many years of Congress rule there," she thundered.

Karat was referring to Sonia's remark that "the Bengal government would have to answer why it has not done anything for the poor in so many years". Karat said Congress was "shedding tears" for minorities, farmers and tribals before the election. "But what have they done all these years? If they did anything at all, it was due to the Left Front's pressure," she said. "Sensing their inevitable defeat in North Malda, Congress is now playing the communal card. But people of the state are conscious enough to refuse them,"

she said. "Sonia said a lot regarding the Prime Minister fashion' in our Third Front. All we want to say is that the people of India have decided not to accept the Congress fashion in Delhi," she said. Regarding Sonia's comment on the "Bengal government's autocratic attitude", Karat said: "Sonia's comment on West Bengal was tantamount to insulting the people. In Bengal, the voting percentage is 70% to 80%. But in Amethi, from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting, the poll percentage is 40 to 45%. Is it not tanashahi' (autocracy)," she wondered.

CPI(M) will make Third Front workable: Biman Basu

Kolkata (IANS): The Communist Party of India(Marxist) (CPI(M)) will use its rich experience of running a Left Front government in West Bengal to make the Third Front a success if it wins the Lok Sabha elections, says the party's politburo member Biman Basu.He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of encouraging "divisive and fissiparous" forces by aligning with the pro-Gorkhaland Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) in the Darjeeling constituency in the northern part of the state.

Secretary of the CPI-M's powerful West Bengal unit, Bose told IANS in an interview: "The Third Front, the way the Left parties have initiated it, is not just a conglomeration of different parties."
He said to make a Third Front government workable, "there will be a Common Minimum Programme which will be accepted by all the constituents.

"I am hopeful this is possible. We have the experience in West Bengal where nine parties have been running the state government for more than 30 years. We consider the Left Front as less than a party and more than a front. "If we can apply this practice in forming the Third Front and can move accordingly, we can set up a sustainable government at the centre."

Mr. Bose underlined that the Left started coalition politics long before other political parties in India. The Left Front government led by the CPI-M came to power in West Bengal in 1977 and has won successive elections. He dismissed as "meaningless" Congress president Sonia Gandhi's comment that the Third Front was born out of some of its leaders' ambition to become prime minister. "She should remember that in any case the prime minister has to be elected."

Asked if West Bengal Chief Minister Buddahdeb Bhattacharjee could be one of the candidates for prime ministership, he called the question hypothetical. Mr. Basu came down heavily on the BJP decision to field heavyweight Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling with the support of the GJM. "The way the BJP has shown sympathy for the GJM and its Gorkhaland demand in its election manifesto, that will help the divisive and fissiparous forces to divide West Bengal.

"The BJP is playing a dangerous game with the GJM. This will definitely break the unity and amity of the people in the hills and plains of Darjeeling," Basu contended. Mr. Basu discounted speculation that the Congress-Trinamool combine could end up with a much greater share of seats than in the previous elections five years ago. In 2004, the Left Front bagged 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, while the Congress and the Trinamool got six and one respectively.

"This combination cannot gain more seats since electoral results do not depend on arithmetic calculation," he said. He also disagreed with the view that the Congress-Trinamool combine was severely denting the Left Front's traditional rural base. "It's a fact that in last year's panchayat (rural bodies) polls, the Left lost seats. But still we got more than 52 percent of the votes."

He contended that the Left Front suffered reverses in the panchayat elections because of disunity in its ranks, leading to the partners fighting each other in more than 10,000 seats. He claimed that the differences had been ironed out this time. Criticising the Congress, the fulcrum of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Basu said: "It is now becoming a victim of rightist forces. Their policies are not meant for the common people. Rather, they are aimed to benefit the wealthy sections."

He said it was a pity the 123-year-old Congress was fighting the elections in West Bengal as the junior partner of Trinamool, its breakaway group. On Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's call that it was battle for "mother, land and people", Basu said: "Their so-called 'mother, land and people' battle is not covering 543 constituencies across India. It is concentrated only in the 42 seats from the State."

Election in 14 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal tomorrow

Kolkata April 29, 2009: West Bengal goes to the first of the three phase election in 14 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state tomorrow amid unprecedented security to ward off threat from Maoists or extremists. Prominent among those whose fate would be decided on the morrow include BJP heavyweight Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling, CPI(M) leader in Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharya from Bankura, CPI parliamentarian Gurudas Dasgupta from Ghatal and the wife of ailing Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Deepa Dasmunshi. Jaswant Singh is fighting the election with the support of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha which is spearheading a stir in the Darjeeling hills for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

A total of 1.69 crore electorate will be eligible to vote for 134 candidates, including nine women. West Bengal will have the highest deployment of 220 companies of central forces in each of the three-phases -- tomorrow, May 7 and May 13. Three helicopters will also be deployed during the election.The central forces would be deployed in static, critical mobile and mobile positions.

The constituencies going to polls are Coochbehar (SC), Alipurduar (ST), Jalpaiguri (SC), Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat, Malda (North) Malda (South), Ghatala, Jhargram (ST), Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur (SC).

Star campaigners for the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance were AICC President Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi. Besides them, Congress stalwart Pranab Mukherjee also campaigned for the alliance. For the ruling Left Front, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee, CPI(M) Politburo members Sitram Yechuri, Brinda Karat and Left Front chairman Biman Basu had hit the campaign trail. CPI(M) veteran leader Jyoti Basu was unable to campaign due to ill health.

The Election Commission faces a crucial test in holding a peaceful poll in the Jhargram seat in West Midnapore district, which includes Lalgarh where a tribal agitation against 'police atrocities' is on since early November last year.

Polling booths in four villages in Lalgarh, whose residents opposed the entry of the police, have been moved five kilometers away with the Election officials arranging for buses to ferry voters. In some North Bengal constituencies there is presence of extremist outfits like the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), allegedly having links with the ULFA, and parties like the Greater Coochbehar Democratic Party (GCDP), agitating for a separate state.

Apart from three regular central election observers for each constituency, the EC has appointed four special observers - two in Ghatal, one in Darjeeling and one in Bishnupur following complaints from those areas, while there would also be micro-observers. Keshpur, Sabang, Pingla, Chandrakona, Malda, Darjeeling and Bishnupur seats have been declared as sensitive, while some others were identified as 'critical'.

Rahul remarks an insult to West Bengal’

People continue to repose faith in the Left: Yechury

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Left Front government in West Bengal amounted to “insulting the people of Bengal.”

“Rajiv Gandhi had once said Kolkata was a dying city. And you remember what happened after that. Now, his son is echoing similar things about Bengal,” Mr. Yechury told journalists when asked to respond to Mr. Gandhi’s charge that the situation in West Bengal was worse than what was in Uttar Pradesh. “Why are the people continuing to repose faith in the Left? If you say they are doing so for the wrong reasons, then it is tantamount to insulting the people of Bengal,” he added.

The CPI(M) leader drew attention to a study, commissioned under Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, which ranked West Bengal among the top three States. The World Bank too had reported a decline in the below-the-poverty line-level population in the State.

“You too won’t agree that Ahluwalia is a Left spokesman or the World Bank a Left body,” he observed while warning that the Left parties too could reveal worse social indicators in Congress-ruled states.

Conceding that anyone could voice his opinion and Mr. Gandhi was no exception, Mr. Yechury pointed out that the fact that the people of West Bengal had elected the Left Front seven times in a row “merits a re-thinking” among those criticising the government.

The Election Commission had in the past conceded the demand of the Opposition parties by inducting security forces in large numbers from outside the State and staggering the elections in five phases but the result was the same.

“I had then told the Election Commission jokingly that so long as you don’t bring in voters from outside, you can’t fight the Left in Bengal,” he said while pointing out that the Left Front had then won two-thirds of the seats.

On Mr. Gandhi’s remark that West Bengal had failed to properly implement the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in some districts, Mr. Yechury blamed the Centre for not responding to the Left Front government’s plea to effect some changes in the utilisation of funds due to the State’s unique climatic conditions. The senior CPI(M) leader said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani’s political standing would be at stake if he accepted the clean chit given by the former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K. S. Sudarshan, regarding his role in Babri Masjid demolition. Mr. Yechury felt it was inconceivable that people would believe in the clean chit given by Mr. Sudarshan or accepted by Mr. Advani.

NREGA performance - West Bengal fares better irrespective of hitches from the Central government

KOLKATA: West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala’s Left Front government had led the fight for proper implementation of NREGA. This infact took another proportion when West Bengal said that proper resource sharing mechanism on the issues of NREGA will be absolutely needed. The fight that the Left Front particularly the CPI(M) fought against the bureaucratic decisions of the UPA led government infact made the UPA bow down.

Mentionable that the 100days work itself under the NREGA scheme was forced upon the UPA government by the Left parties as right to work was an essential demand primarily of the Left parties. Although now the Congress is trying to take credit of this but the bitter fact remains that probably the Congress if returned to power is planning to weaken the national rural employment generation programme. An indication of this wily design has already been manifested by the current budget where for 2009-2010 Rs 55,170 crore has been allocated for the ministry, a decrease of 14.93 per cent from 2008-09. Quite understandably, the World Bank in its 2009 World Human Development report has slammed the NREGA as a policy barrier to the internal mobility. Therefore it is not surprising that a concerted attempt is being made by the UPA to carry on a vicious campaign against the propagator of NREGA i.e. the LEFT parties due to whose emphasis the UPA government had been forced to adopt this landmark scheme.

Infact in the first phase of the implementation of NREGA about 2 out of the 4 districts in west Bengal where NREGA had been carried out has received awards from the Central Government. The rest two missed the prize by whiskers. Out of the 18 districts of the West Bengal where NREGA is being carried out in 2008-2009 financial year a total of 11 lakh 68 thousand 428 families or 15 lakh 37229 people has got work under this scheme according to Central government report only. On the other hand the number of districts covered under the NREGA in Rajasthan, Orrissa, Madhyapradesh Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra has been more. Currently in West Bengal work is going on under NREGAin 59thousand 868projects. This is also because of the extra emphasis of the NREGA on earthwork which perhaps is not entire suitable for a state like West Bengal which itself is agriculturally advanced. Also West Bengal government has many times urged the centre and the bureaucrats in including rural community resource creation within the scope of work of NREGA. However with West Bengal’s elected Panchayets and the mechanism of participation of the village governments within the scope of 100 days work has also given an entirely new dimension to the NREGA work in west Bengal. The minimum wage under the NREGA has also been increased by the West Bengal government. Recently West Bengal has been awarded one of the four first prizes of Rs 1.50 crores for good performance of PRIs , its Panchayet system once again has been regarded as one of the best mechanisms of the country.

According to sources in Panchayet and Rural Development department, Government of West Bengal, more than 41lakh bank or post office accounts have been opened so far. Out of which, 13 lakh 18 thousand 174 has been joint accounts. The minister in charge of Rural development and Panchayets Bankim Ghosh has said that emphasis has been given to open joint accounts under NREGA. Extra emphasis had been given on rain water harvesting horticulture and allied activities. Emphasis has also been given to do work under the NREGA in the 4612 backward villages of the state. Mentionable that West Bengal has also been the first state in the entire country when it comes to identify its backward villages and to plan accordingly.

According to Central Government statistics till the month of February this year ,a total of 9175528 household has been issued job cards till the latest reporting month out of which 3258257 are from schedule caste background, 962560 from ST background, and 4954711 coming from others background. Here it can be mentioned that the work under the NREGA in the state had been started in phases and the latest addition being the Howrah district. In the month of February 2009 itself a total of 934237 people were working under the NREGA in different districts of West Bengal. The Total number of cumulative person days generated under NREGA in West Bengal has been 576.46846 (lakh days) out of which 220.74443(lakh days) has been for schedule castes 90.041599(lakh days) for ST, 142.32229(lakh days) are for women and the rest 265.68244(lakh days) for people belonging to other castes. Out of this a total of 235385 families working in NREGA have also been benefitted due to land reforms in the state and 24970 have been disabled persons who have got work under NREGA in the different districts of west Bengal. Mentionable that due to Panchayet elections in West Bengal work suffered to some extent in NREGA due to the NREGA guidelines and the election regulation. In the Trinamool controlled Zilla Parishads also work has suffered to a greater extent due to non cooperation by those Zilla Parishad. Also due to the agitation in the Darjeeling district. By the GJM and the subsequent ban on NREGA work by the GJM has also hampered the work in that district. In portions of West Medinipore i.e. in Lalgarh and the Maoist insurgency prone areas work on NREGA has suffered due to demand of money by the Maoists. In the September –October month also work suffered due to the opposition fuelled unrest in parts of West Medinipore and Bankura and Purulia.

However after the common people resisted to these evil designs, now work again is on full swing in these areas. West Bengal is also faring well in number of Gramsabha held in each villages and the State government recently has also announced a policy decision in this regard and has declared that the state government will not release own funds of the gram Panchayets until and unless the gram sabha’s are held regularly in the village Panchayets of the state. In the year 2008 -2009 a total of 1337 complaints were lodged and more than 77 percent of the complaints have been disposed of already in other cases investigations has been taken up by proper authorities.

LALGARH WITNESSES A FEARLESS PADAYATRA

LALGARH: There was no ocean of clouds in the sky. The heat was broiling. The ambience was waiting anxiously for another of the secretive assaults by the ‘Maoists.’ Then the tide changed. A padayatra of several thousands CPI (M) workers and local villagers emerged from the forests into Lalgarh, plenty of Red Flags fluttering and afloat in the hot khamsin-like wind swirls, slogans reverberating across the Sal, Mahua, Arjun, and Simul trees in full, multi-hued bloom – summer has been here. Leading the marchers was Dr Pulin Baskey, CPI (M) candidate from the Jhargram parliamentary seat. The march winded its way through villages like Belatikari, Nepura, Dharampur, Chemtiara, Bamal, Jirapara, and Gohmi.

Dr Pulin went from house-to-house on his campaign trail. He moved freely around Lalgarh east and west, the ‘Maoist’-affected stretches, upto Saradamani. Everywhere he was welcomed with fresh flowers and garlands. The people were eager to talk to him and tell him about the ‘Maoist’ atrocities that had also stultified development work in the Kantageria-Lalgarh-Ramgarh area. Each of the stopovers that Dr Pulin made was within a maximum of one kilometre of known ‘Maoist’ shelters that the loyal Trinamuli toughs provide – out of political compulsion or fear is still a point of debate.

The CPI (M) candidate addressed an impromptu rally at the ST Chowk that was attended by several thousands of the local populace. For the first time, we could see that the wall of fear was crumbling down and the people were no longer cowering when coming out into the open. The padayatra was at least three km long and had other, smaller meetings that the CPI (M) leadership of the area addressed, among them Anuj Pandey and Joydeb Giri.

Dr Pulin then proceeded to the place in Belatikari where CPI (M) leader Chandi Karan had been assaulted by the ‘Maoist-Trinamuli’ combination a few weeks back. We were quite astonished as we witnessed people pour out of the hutments and mill around the CPI (M) leadership – the enthusiasm was quite infectious and certainly affected us as well as the few known Trinamulis of the locale who had ventured out to see what the hurrahs were all about.

Then the padayatra entered the deepest of the dense stretches of the jangal mahal, slogans ringing out all the while, where the pitched-and-tarred metalled road was a strip of winding steel glistening harsh amidst the soft lush of greens, browns, and the bright Red of the march.

The people at a final rally held at Gohmi by the side of the deep aquamarine stream where quiet flows the Kangsabati river, told the CPI (M) leaders how the ‘Maoists’ had visited the area deep into the night, last night, asking the villagers not to join the padayatra or else. They defied the death threat -- and the cracks have started to appear in the façade of fear that these left sectarians and their Trinamuli cronies seek to drape over the Lalgarh area. The election is but a couple of days away.

Puruliya is far ahead of Prince's own Amethi-Raebareli

KOLKATA(INN): Congress leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi has criticised the Left Front government for lack of development in West Bengal during his election campaign in the State. He has said that the situation in Puruliya is even worse than Kalahandi. The prince of Congress himself is an M.P. from Amethi in Sultanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. The Amethi and the Raebareli constituencies by virtue of traditionally being the constituencies of Gandhi family have got an undue favour from the central Government. Yet, the data says that these constituencies are closer to Kalahandi vis-a-vis underdevelopment instead of Puruliya, as Rahul Gandhi would have us believe. In certain aspects, they are even worse than Kalahandi.

If we look at the index of economic and social development, Puruliya is way ahead of Raebareli and Amethi. These indices are constructed by national sample survey, ‘Bharat Nirman’ project, department of rural development etc. Indices regarding health, education, infrastructure are taken from household and facility survey-3 of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Even from the constituency level data given in the website of Indicus Analytics, it is clear that Mr. Rahul Gandhi, or his team of political advisors, has not done minimum ‘homework’ before speaking in public.

If we consider the proportion of population below poverty line, during 2008 in Puruliya constituency it was 20% population whereas that was 44% in Amethi,58% in Raebareli and 59% in Kalahandi. In puruliya, the proportion of the BPL population is reduced by 4% during last 4 years, whereas it has gone up in Kalahandi and Raebareli. The annual average household income has been Rs. 83 thousand in Puruliya as compared to Rs.51 thousand in Amethi, 47 thousand in Raebareli and 49 thousand in Kalahandi. Average annual Per capita consumption expenditure has been Rs. 13 thousand in Puruliya as compared to Rs. 6.2 thousand and Rs. 7.8 thousand in Amethi and Raebareli respectively which are lower than even Kalahandi (Rs. 10.7 thousand).

A district-wise study by Choudhary and Gupta (EPW, 2009) which is based on NSSO consumption survey of 2004-5 tells us that average per month per capita consumption expenditure in rural areas has been Rs. 304 in Kalahandi and Rs. 461 in Puruliya district, but for Raebareli district this was only Rs. 385. In urban areas per month per head expenditures have been Rs. 846, Rs.741 and Rs. 699 in Puruliya, Kalahandi and Raebareli respectively. According to this study the percentage of poor population in rural areas has been 70.5% in Kalahandi, 54.4% in Raebareli and 31.2% in Puruliya. The percentage of poor population in urban areas has been 60.3% in Kalahandi, 40.5% in Raebareli and 36.9% in Puruliya district. Therefore, it is clear that the poverty situation is much worse in Raebareli district than Puruliya and the former is comperatively closer to Kalahandi and not the later. However, indicators in Sultanpur district are much better, where part of the Amethi constituency is located.

According to the constituency-wise indicus data, the proportion of urban population is highest in Puruliya among Kalahandi, Amethi, Raebareli and Puruliya. The proportion of households having electricity is also heighest in Puruliya among these four constituencies during 2008. In Amethi, the work participation rate is only 34% and that in Raebareli only 36% as compared to 47% in Kalahandi and 45% in Puruliya. Work participation rate among women in Amethi is only 24% and that in Raebareli is only 26% as compared to 40% and 37% in Kalahandi and Puruliya respectively. Primary sector employment (i.e. agriculture and allied) is lowest in Puruliya during 2008 among these four constituencies. The infant mortality rate is 46 per thousand live births in Puruliya, whereas that is 83 in Amethi, 79 in Raebareli and 94 in Kalahandi. Under 5 years mortality rate is 89 per thousand in Puruliya as compared to 160 in Amethi, 156 in Raebareli and 178 in Kalahandi. Vis-a-vis immunization, Raebareli-Amethi are in medieval age - 84% children in Puruliya are fully immunized whereas only 16% children in Amethi and Raebareli are fully immunized. This percentage have come down during 2008 than 2004 for Amethi and Raebareli and it is even much lower than the Kalahandi (41%) constituency.

The district-wise DLHS-3 data for 2007-08 shows that 27.5% households have electricity connection in Puruliya as compared to 18.3% in Kalahandi and 23.1% in Raebareli. 17.1% people live in pucca hoses in Puruliya as compared to only 1.9% in Kalahandi and 16.7% in Raebareli district. 11.3% people have access to safe piped drinking water in Puruliya district as compared to only 3% people in Kalahandi, 2.7% in Sultanpur and 9.1% in Raebareli district. 40% of total deliveries takes place as institutional delivery in Puruliya district, whereas only 27.3% in Kalahandi, only 24.3% in Raebareli and 36.6% are institutional deliveries in Kalahandi, Raebareli and Sultanpur districts respectively. In Puruliya district 84.3% children are fully immunized, whereas only 43.2% in Kalahandi, 33.1% in Raebareli and 45% children in Sultanpur district are fully immunized. Despite the presence of many remote places and substantial proportion of tribal population in Puruliya, Puruliya is far ahead of Amethi-Raebareli in respect of health service delivery.

SLANDEROUS LIES OF CONGRESS AGAINST LEFT FRONT GOVERNMENT AND REAL FACTS

BY Dr. Asim Kumar Dasgupta

On the eve of the forthcoming parliamentary elections on 5th April, 2009 the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on behalf of the Congress Party packaged baseless lies as a “report card” against the Left Front Government in West Bengal. On the 6th of April 2009, the State Left Front Chairman and Secretary of CPI(M) State Committee Biman Basu refuted the so called facts and canards in detail. However, I am once again putting together a comprehensive rejoinder to the numerous false charges in their write-up.

Slander 1: There has been no development in education during the tenure of the Left Front Government. The percentage of drop-outs in West Bengal is 82.7% which is way above the national average, and the quality of school education in the state is very bad, etc.

Real Fact: During the tenure of the Left Front Government special priority has been given to spread access, quality and continuity in education starting from the primary level upwards. This effort is not only limited in admitting children to schools, but emphasis is also given to involving women self-help groups in mid-day meal scheme in all schools and reduce the tendency to drop out. Simultaneously attention is given to activities of school-wise mother-teacher committees, village-based education committees and school inspectors to improve the quality of education. As a result according to the latest information from NUEPA (2007), the drop-out rate in primary schools of West Bengal has gone down to 8.56% which is in fact less than the national average of 9.36%. From the same source, we learn that at the junior high school level also this rate has gone further down to 7.34%. According to the last available state-wise information published by NCERT (2005), the students of West Bengal are at the top in the nation in overall qualitative evaluation of all the subjects after the completion of fifth standard in school.

The Congress “Report” is falsely critical of the education system under Left rule; and also in effect insults the honourable teachers and the students of West Bengal while real facts are showing diametrically opposite scenario.

Slander 2: The Left Front Government has failed to provide safe drinking water to the inhabitants of the state. Using information from the National Family-wise Health Survey (2005-06) it states that while safe drinking water is provided to 84.2% and 78.4% families in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra respectively, while in West Bengal only 27.9% families have access to safe drinking water.

Real Fact: The sample survey which has been referred to in this “Report” uses a very small sample for West Bengal. While the number of total families in West Bengal is around 2.29 Crore (1.34 Crore in rural area and 0.45 Crore in urban areas), this survey takes a sample size of 5992 families, which is a meager 0.03% of the total. In sharp contrast, according to the survey conducted by the State Government in which complete information from 1.34 Crore families in 40000 villages and around 0.40 Crore families in urban areas was collected, 90.5% rural families and 96.8% urban families have access to safe drinking water. Therefore here too the actual position is are just the opposite of what has been projected in the “Report.”

However, the Left Front Government feels that there is still some more scope for improvement and targets have already been fixed to make safe drinking water available to 100% families in urban and rural areas of the state. Simultaneously steps have been taken to supervise and maintain all water projects through panchayats and municipal corporations.

Slander 3: In the area of public health nothing much has been done during the Left Front rule because the average Body Mass Index of women in West Bengal is less than the national average in comparison and so on.

Real Fact: Information on women’s health is taken from the National Family-wise Sample Survey which has a serious statistical problem of very small sample size, as mentioned earlier. According to the latest round of this survey (2005-06), as far as BMI is concerned 51.8% women in this country have normal BMI while in West Bengal this ratio stands at 49.6%. What this so called “Report” forgets to mention is that the same source of information reveals data lower than West Bengal in some other major and more affluent and developed states like Maharashtra (49.3%), Karnataka (49.2%) and Gujarat (47.0%). Moreover, according to the latest report of FAO (2008) special mention has been made of India in the area of food insecurity and problems of women’s health; and more specific and serious concerns are expressed regarding some other states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa and Maharashtra. We feel instead of singling out a particular state by using this problem to make vulgar political points it is much more desirable to find a humane acceptable way towards solution to this problem through discussions with all the states in the country.

The progress of public healthcare in a state is ideally measured by looking at how rapidly a reduction in overall mortality rate and child mortality rate has been achieved and what has been the role of the state government in that reduction. The point to be noted here is that while only 40% patients get the opportunity to be treated in a government hospital nationally, in West Bengal 73% of the total patients get treatment in government hospitals. In the Left Front era this welfare role of the state government has been institutionalized and re-enforced; and the endeavour to provide decentralized preventive healthcare and treatment through panchayats and municipal corporations adds more strength to this emphasis, particularly on the basis of expansion of healthcare by employing more health workers. As a result of all these the latest published data of the central government (Source: SRS survey, 2007) show that mortality rate per thousand has gone down from 10.9 in 1980 to 6.3 now, which is much lower than national average of 7.4. Incidentally among the major states West Bengal has the lowest mortality rate and Kerala stands just after West Bengal at 6.4. Child mortality rate per thousand has also gone down from 91 in 1980 to 37 currently, which is lower than the national average (57) and fourth among the major states after Kerala (14), Tamil Nadu (36) and Maharashtra (37). Here one outstanding fact is that the child mortality rate decreased to even below 10 in Kolkata and the 41 adjacent municipal areas due to the involvement of the municipal corporations in the decentralized healthcare system. Moreover, this rate is even lower than the child mortality rate in municipal areas of Kerala.

If one takes all this information together the real picture becomes clear that West Bengal has come up at the top level in the country in public healthcare, but this kind of an intellectually and politically honest and principled approach would have highlighted the successes of the Left Front Government. As a result, the authors of this report and their allies would have been in a politically uncomfortable situation; and that is precisely why they created a huge gap between the reality and their slander to utilize this pack of lies politically.

Slander 4: During the Left Front Government’s tenure poverty and hunger have become significant in West Bengal. Murshidabad is the poorest district in the country and so on.

Real Fact: Information provided by the Planning Commission is the most acceptable source for comparing state-wise figures for population below the poverty line in our country. According to those statistics, during Congress rule in West Bengal in 1973-74 the percentage of population below poverty line was 63.43%, which was much higher than the national average of 54.88%. This was the intensity of poverty in the state during Congress rule. In contrast, during Left Front tenure using land reform as the basis and implementing alternative policies the percentage of population below poverty line rapidly decreased. The same Planning Commission’s latest information reveals that in the year 2004-05 this figure has come down to 20.6% which is less than national average of 21.6% unlike the Congress-ruled era in the State. Therefore, the scenario has transformed in favour of common people compared to the dismal situation during Congress government.

After knowing this what do the authors of this slander do and where can they find some faults? They incoherently quote from an article written by Dreze and Deaton (EPW, 14th February, 2009) and say that the percentage of population without adequate food intake is 11.7% which is higher than national average of 2.5%. The architects of this slanderous report either tried to exploit this article or they could not find the time to read it fully, or else they have deliberately hidden the facts. Page 45 of this article clearly mentions that these ratios were derived from a survey whose questionnaire was changed in between to a more controversial and questionable one. In the changed methodology the surveyors were instructed to write down the answers by asking questions based on completely psychological perceptions instead of asking objective and scientific questions. This methodology resulted in varied and unexplainable sets of answers from different states, and hence the authors cautioned that using this set of information may give rise to suspicious results for a state-wise comparison. Without reading this, or may be by hiding this, the authors of the Congress Report utilized this unreliable information.

That is not all. The authors forgot that the last National Sample Survey on state-wise information of food intake was published in that very year of 2004-05 based on solid objective and material information(61st round). That survey clearly spells out that in rural West Bengal per capita calorie intake is 2070 which is not only more than the national average of 2047 but also it is higher than Maharashtra (1933), Gujarat (1929), Karnataka (1845) and Tamil Nadu (1842).

West Bengal government undertook a survey in each village of each district which shows that at present the percentage of population not getting adequate food is only 3.59%. If the urban data is added to this then this ratio will go below 2.5% for the entire West Bengal. Therefore once again real facts and slander propagated as facts are absolutely different even in the matter of food intake.

The Congress report states that Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) has conducted a survey which shows that 56% of Murshidabad district’s population lives in abject poverty and this district is the poorest district in the country. We don’t know about any such survey conducted by ISI, but according to the family and district-wise survey conducted by the state government the population living in abject poverty in Murshidabad is 4.3% (not 56% as mentioned in Congress Report), and as far as this ratio is concerned Murshidabad is better than some of the districts in West Bengal itself.

However, the main reason for economic hardship of the common people of Murshidabad is the erosion of soil in the banks of the Ganga-Padma river. Since this erosion takes place along the international border the state government repeatedly petitioned the central government to treat the problem of erosion in the banks of Ganga-Padma as a crucial national level issue and the central government take adequate responsibility to solve this problem. In spite of this, the central government under both the Congress rule and the NDA rule (of which Trinamool Congress was a constituent) did not pay any attention to this legitimate demand of the people of Murshidabad. So, the majority (around Rs. 400 Crore) of the total money spent (Rs. 717.89 Crore) on preventing this erosion from 1977-78 to 2008-09 was done by the Left Front Government of West Bengal on its own.

LEFT UNITY TOWARDS STRENGTHENING THE ‘THIRD FRONT’

KOLKATA,27th APRIL: The wondrous desiderata of the questions of an anxious fourth estate at the ‘full bench’ media conference of the Bengal Left Front – all partners were represented – was the reason[s] why there was such accord of ground reality down to the booth level in the Left Front in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, whereas such unison was at least marginally absent in the Panchayat elections of 2008.

LF UNITY – A POLITICAL FORMATION
All the Left Front leaders with LF chairman Biman Basu in the van gave a strong response to this repeated query from the media representatives at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in the late morning of 27 April. Biman asserted that primarily the unity of the Left Front must be distinguished clearly from the ‘alliance’ of the Trinamul Congress and the Congress. The LF unity was based on class struggle and mass movements.

The Trinamulis have allowed change of hands as far as electoral partners were concerned for the fourth time now from 1998. The anomaly is that the lone Trinamul Lok Sabha MP’s seat is with the NDA as is that of its Rajya Sabha representative. The ‘unity’ with the Congress is as ephemeral as the promises scattered left and right, of the Trinamuli leadership. Any slip up in the Lok Sabha elections and the Trinamulis would be sure to slip back to NDA and BJP. There was no principle involved at any stage of the unity/disunity – it was all opportunism with a capital ‘O.’

LF APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE
Biman Basu narrated the seven-point unified appeal of the LF to the people. Biman said that the LF appeals to the people to make LF candidates victorious in all 42 Lok Sabha seats:

1.To ensure that a Third Front-led government is installed in Delhi
2.To augment self-reliant economy, independent foreign policy, and to set up a model federal structure
3.To defeat the Trinamul Congress which represents anarchism, terror, and disorder and is backed by forces of reaction both here and abroad, and their allies including Congress, as well as the communal forces that the BJP represents
4.To maintain an ambience of peace, democracy, and communal harmony
5.To ensure that there is a consolidated and integrated development of agriculture, industry, services, and that social justice prevails in every realm
6.To keep alive the Left alternative economic policy to counter the present economic crisis
7.To ensure that Bengal remains one and united

Biman also fielded questions on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s briefest of brief stopover at a central locality in Purulia Township and his bitter comparison of Kalahandi with the entire district of Purulia that reeked of untruth all the way.

UNTRUTH ABOUT PURULIA
The following statistics are relevant in support of the CPI (M) leader’s contention that comparison between Kalahandi and Purulia was odious, untrue, and motivated. Leave apart, Kalahandi, Purulia is indeed more advanced than Raeberili-Amethi, the carefully-cultivated and nurtured backyard of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Indicators (%) Raeberili -Amethi /Purulia

People BPL 54/ 31
Urban population 07/ 11
Family with electricity 14/ 29
Landline telephone 6/ 6
Per capita expenditure Rs 385/-/ Rs 46/-
Work participation 34 /45
Work participation women 24/ 37
Literacy 62/ 63
Vaccinated children 16/ 84
Neo-natal death 83 (per 1000)/ 46 (per 1000)
Fatality below five years 160 (per 1000) /89 (per 1000)

Source: Government of India, various publications including the National Sample Survey, and the latest Household and Facilities Survey vol. III, passim.

Thus, as Biman put it, Raeberili -Amethi is perhaps more like Kalahandi and not Purulia, although there are lots of fresh developmental works needed in the Bengal district of the rain-shadowed laterite zone that, however, could not be taken up because of the successive union government’s intransigence.

LESSONS FROM THE RURAL POLLS
Veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh feely admitted that during the last Panchayat elections there was disunity amongst the Left Front in 9,400-odd of a total of 64,000-odd rural constituencies at three levels of Panchayat, Panchayat samity, and Zillah Parishad. Senior RSP leader Debabrata Bandyopadhyay chimed in to confess that the largest number of seat dis-arrangements was at the behest of his party vis-à-vis the CPI (M), about 7500. Such differences no longer exited, now more than ever.

Both these leaders and the Bengal CPI secretary Manjukumar Majumdar declared that the effort this time would be to send as many candidates of the Left Front as possible to Delhi to form the core of the Third Front that grew in strength with the political participation of the Left although the formation included many regional parties as well.

UNITY ROCK-SOLID
The Panchayat level disunity, the CPI leader pointed out, left behind lessons that were being put aright during the present Lok Sabha polls with the LF enjoying a rock-solid unity. Ashok Ghosh said that unity in a Left formation was part of dialectics. Did not each Party, too, has had differences in line, was the sprightly 85-year-old’s rhetorical query.

Continuing in a self-critical vein Biman said that the rural polls saw the LF gather 52.76% votes and the two Congresses, Pradesh and Trinamul 14.3% and 24.60% respectively. Yet, the LF lost out on two ZPs. Biman also emphasized that the bi-party rule or even alternate rule by one of the two bourgeois formations was over. The Third Front is about to step into office in Delhi. The LF aims to send out 42 MPs to Delhi to strengthen the Left presence in the Lok Sabha.

MD. SALIM NAILS ALLEGATION ON MPLAD FUND UTILISATION

KOLKATA, April 25: As we have said recently, the Trinamul Congress is really, getting desperate. It despairs of political survival as the Lok Sabha elections draw inexorably closer in Bengal. Otherwise, how does one explain the hoarding that says ‘I am the late Ajit Panja, MP, from Kolkata, speaking from heaven: please vote for the AITC candidate because Mohd Selim has not utilised his MP LAD funds and the funds have gone back to Delhi.’

That is only the tip of the iceberg. All over the Kolkata North segment, posters without carrying the by-line of any political party keeps saying much the same thing with, as in cheap musical scores, carrying the distortions, and using more and more unparliamentary language. Communal angles are utilised too mentioning how Muslims have benefited in Hindu dominated areas and the other way round, treading thus on dangerous grounds. As Mohd Selim himself put it today 25 April at a press briefing at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, arbitrary figures are quoted by the Trinamulis while accusing Selim of non-utilisation of MP LAD funds. Sometimes it is Rs 8.58 crore, then again, elsewhere on another hoarding it is Rs 7.79 crore as funds not used.During his tenure as an MP, Selim has recommended 423 pieces of developmental work and the cost is Rs 10.71 crore. 35% of the schemes relate to the development of educational institutions, especially girls’ schools and hostels. Another 28% is concerned with development of slums and uplift of the poorest of the poor.

The Trinamulis should know that under the guidelines for MP LAD funds it is clearly written that such funds are neither lapsable nor returnable with the previous MP’s unused amount devolving on the new MP. Would the Trinamulis care to listen or even try to appreciate the words of central government guidelines? No, they would not for, they have no time left on their hands after cooking up all kinds of savage mish-mash of defamation and calumnious propaganda, even as the gloom-and-doom of the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal forecloses on their leader and her ranks.