BENGAL CPI (M) CALLS FOR EVER-DEEPER CONTACT WITH MASSES TO DEFEAT THE FORCES OF ANARCHY

KOLKATA, 2nd Sept, 2010: In its two-day meeting held over 1-2 September at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata, the Bengal state committee of the CPI (M) called upon every worker, and upon the leadership to bring to reality the ambience that calls for a positive change in the political scene of Bengal today. No sacrifices should be shunned, no activities pro-people, especially pro-poor, slackened, and the forces of anarchy out to destroy the carefully-nurtured democratic environment of Bengal must be deal a hard blow of defeat, taking the masses of the people into close confidence.

POSITIVE SIGN

The state unit let it be known in clear and in ringing tones that there was a positive sign of protest amongst the masses to defeat the forces of deviationism and reaction in the political arena. This must be kept firm in mind and contact with the masses made, as before, a continuous and ever-widening political-organisational drive.

In the long and meaningful discussion sessions, the members of the state committee were at one in noting that during the month-long August campaign on issues touching the lives and livelihoods of the people, especially the poor, the effort to reach out to the masses with the Party’s political campaign along with the need to resolve the emergent problems troubling the daily lives of the people, the rise in process of common commodities taking the prime of place as did the issue of anarchy and counter-democratic ploys of the enemies, has had its effect in more and more popular participation in the CPI (M)-led movements and struggles.

The increase in the mass participation in the programmes set up and going by the mass organisations is another pointer in this vigorous direction. It was duly noted by the state leadership that more than in the recent past, the taking enthusiastic part in the party-led programmes of campaign-movements from amongst the poor and from the backward classes of every community has visibly increased and the trend continues to display long-term prospects of the right kind.

REBUILD THE RANKS

The section or sections of the people that had been even marginally alienated from the acts and activities of the Party have chosen emphatically to rejoin the ranks and regroup for mass struggles to have a politically meaningful significance. This process is also seen as a welcome development amongst those people who not as such vote for the party or the left.

The state committee members made an especial mention of the situation in the jangal mahal. The state unit noted the militant nature of protest and resistance of the masses that are now quite infuriated against the anti-people and anti-poor acts of commission perpetrated on them by the so-called, self-styled ‘Maoists.’ People in massive numbers have taken to the streets in the jangal mahals widest areas across the districts of Midnapore west, and Bankura to frustrate the anti-people and anti-poor designs of the revisionists and the reactionary elements. The pro-people and pro-poor initiatives of the state LF government have continued to receive as in the past the fullest support from amongst the people.

A POLITICAL TASK OF IMPORTANCE

In conclusion, Biman Basu, state secretary of the CPI (M) said that the assignment of importance to be pursued with dedication comprised the political task of bringing back to the Party ranks those of the Party workers, supporters and sympathisers who had chosen to break ranks with the Party for some acts of the Party that had irritated them into doing what they have done. The attitude of resistance is a gaining ground amongst the masses, as Biman Basu did not fail to draw emergent attention of the state leadership of the Bengal CPI (M).

The hired goons of the enemy must be countered by maintaining and deepening an enduring contact with the masses, all the while, all the way. The party and the people shall advance by defeating the machinations of the forces of anarchy and mayhem. Top make this aim fructify, the intensity of the campaign-movement must be sharpened and widened in the days, months, and years to come.

Biman Basu also took note of the need to ensure that the working and the works of the Panchayats were organised successfully, again taking the masses into confidence. He also underscored the need to increase the Party initiative and Party monitoring in the concerned sectors.

Biman Basu said that while going in full tilt for making a success out of pro-people developmental work and undertaking the correct political initiative, the massive corruption and assorted crimes against the people perpetrated by the opposition- run Panchayats, Panchayat Samities and Zillah Parishads, the masses must be mobilised and mass deputations submitted everywhere, at every functional level.

JATHAS ACROSS BENGAL

The Bengal CPI (M) also said that a wide and deep programme of jathas under the aegis of the Bengal Left Front would be organised in the villages as well as the urban stretches between the last week of September until the first week of October, based on the emergent needs of issues touching the lives and livelihoods of the masses. It was iterated that a detailed plan was drawn up at the recent past meetings of the district LF and the party committees at the appropriate levels must make it a task to ensure that the programme was carried through and properly implemented in a planned manner.

The jatha programme would comprise some basic issues. These include the issues that affect the lives and livelihoods of the people adversely. The other important point was the drafting of demand charters to be placed appropriately with the union government and the LF government here in Bengal. The Bengal LF workers must reach out to the people in this regard.

The jathas’ success depended on the panning that has to be taken up beforehand by drawing up and implementing a detailed programme of smaller baithak meetings and street-corner meetings in the rural and urban areas. The LF workers must meet the people at the household level to speak to them and to listen to their problems and woes, to guide them and the lead them. The Trinamul Congress and indeed the entire spectrum of the opposition in Bengal have taken up the onerous task of undertaking a lie campaign against the Party, the LF and the LF government. There should no lacunae anywhere to place before the masses the facts of the situation explaining and elaborating on the political campaign of the Party and the LF.

 

By B Prasant (INN)

Apollo may set up more hospitals in West Bengal

KOLKATA, 2nd Sept . 2010: Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd is in talks with Parkway Holdings of Singapore to set up more hospitals in West Bengal via their existing joint venture, a top official said here Thursday.

'Our agreement is for West Bengal only and we are looking at setting up more hospitals,' Apollo Hospitals managing director Preetha Reddy said on the sidelines of an event at the Institute of Company Secretaries.

The joint venture runs one hospital in India under Apollo Gleneagles brand in Kolkata.

Asked if Apollo has plans to expand the scope of joint venture with Parkway, Reddy said Apollo would remain a 'knowledge partner'.

Parkway is now owned by Khazanah, a soverign fund of Malaysia. Talking about the company's investment plans, she said it is pumping in Rs.1,800 crore in the next 24 months.

Is Centre shielding Mamata on Maoist issue?

By Marcus Dam

The Hindu, September 2, 2010

 

Two Union Ministers defending Mamata's remarks shows that Congress will go to any length to keep its alliance with Trinamool.

Successive comments by two senior Union Ministers within four days on certain remarks of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on the Maoist situation in West Bengal only go to show that the Congress is overtly keen on not upsetting the apple-cart and will go to any length to keep its alliance with its partner in the United Progressive Alliance government intact.

Not to be forgotten is the critical Assembly election in West Bengal due next year and the need for shoring up the rather wobbly electoral pact between the two parties in the State.

By stating in New Delhi on Wednesday that “there are some camps in some parts of West Bengal,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram virtually endorsed Ms. Banerjee's allegations about the existence of camps belonging to armed activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Jangal Mahal region (forest areas spanning Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia districts) in the southwest of the State.

Mr. Chidambaram, however, chose not to mention the CPI(M) while making his observation, much as Ms. Banerjee might have liked him to.

The Trinamool leadership must have felt its stand similarly vindicated on Sunday when Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, at an event here, pointed out that he saw no contradiction between Ms. Banerjee's remarks on the death of Maoist leader Azad at a rally in Lalgarh on August 9 and the UPA government's “stated policy” on the subject.

Ms. Banerjee's utterances at the rally that she believed Azad's killing in an encounter with the Andhra Pradesh police on July 2 was improper, and her paying tributes to him raised a stir in Parliament subsequently.

But even in the face of the allegation that the Maoist leader was killed in a “fake encounter,” which the Centre denied, Mr. Mukherjee said that given the Andhra Pradesh government's explanation of the situation and the circumstances under which the killing took place, he did not think “that what she [Ms. Banerjee] has stated has any contradiction with the stated policy of the UPA government.”

A chest pain Ms. Banerjee developed when a lorry hit a car of her convoy that in turned brushed against her vehicle in what was alleged to be an attempt to “assassinate” her while she was returning from Lalgarh kept her away from Parliament and from facing the Opposition's flak for her remarks at the rally till she finally made an appearance in the Lok Sabha on August 19.

That the State's Criminal Investigation Department probing the incident has so far found little evidence to suggest that it was an “assassination attempt” is another matter.

In Mr. Mukherjee shielding Ms. Banerjee from accusations of her having links with the Maoists, and his assertion that just because the Trinamool is a constituent of the UPA does not mean that it cannot have an “independent opinion” seem hidden the imperative not to rub the Trinamool chief up the wrong way.

This, particularly, at a time when the Congress is only too eager to ensure that nothing comes in the way of its alliance with the Trinamool, which is by far the dominant of the two in West Bengal's political firmament. Needless to say, much of the Congress's fortunes in the Assembly elections depend on its relations with Ms. Banerjee's party.

CPI (M) expels Subodh Roy

NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) on Wednesday expelled its former MP and Central Committee member Subodh Roy from the primary membership for “grave anti-party activities” with immediate effect. Mr. Roy, who represented Bhagalpur between 1999 and 2004, had lost the 2004 general elections to Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP. In a 2006 by-election, necessitated by the resignation of Mr. Modi, the seat was won by Shahnawaz Khan of the BJP, who retained it in 2009. There are reports Mr. Roy is likely to join the Janata Dal (United).

CPI(M): camps set up to lodge people evicted by Maoists

The Hindu, Kolkata, September 2, 2010

A day after Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said there was a general agreement on the existence of camps of armed cadres in parts of West Bengal, Biman Basu, secretary of the State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Thursday that his party set up camps on the fringes of the Jangalmahal area only to shelter those evicted from their homes by Maoists.

“Our party is working in the Jangalmahal area [that spans the forest areas of the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia], but that does not mean we have set up camps for armed cadres,” Mr. Bose said, when asked to comment on Mr. Chidambaram's statement.

Mr. Chidambaram might not have mentioned the CPI(M) while making his remarks, but they came in the background of allegations by the Trinamool Congress that the CPI(M) set up several armed camps in the region under the cover of the joint security operations to flush out Maoists.

Mr. Bose said the people of the region were united in offering resistance to Maoists.

The camps set up by the CPI(M) were for “those driven out of their homes,” some of which were set on fire and ones who were “under a constant threat from Maoists.”

The CPI(M) was trying to revive its activities in the region and could not remain silent in the face of atrocities being committed on people, he said.

“The people are also rising up against the extremists' activities having learnt from their bitter experience,” Mr. Bose said.

Senior leader of the CPI(M) and member of its central committee, Nilotpal Basu said the least expected of the Centre was that it got together all political forces against those violating the Constitution and breaking the law.

IG refutes charges

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) S.K. Purakayastha discounted reports of armed camps being set up in the Jangalmahal area by any political party.

Camps there belonged to the security forces, who were engaged in activity related to area domination.

The police did not receive any formal complaint from any political quarter of armed cadres being housed in camps.

Buddhadeb blames Centre for not releasing MGNREGA fund

BS Reporter / Kolkata September 1, 2010, 0:22 IST

West Bengal's Left Front government, already feeling the heat as 11 districts of the state remain drought-stricken ahead of the expected hustings next year, has trained its guns on the Centre for holding back crucial funds for alternative employment generation through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA).

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, speaking at the 51st anniversary of the CPI-led food movement here today, said that the Union government is yet to disburse the full amount of Rs 1,400 crore required for MGNREGA.

“I have written to the Prime Minister and told Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, but haven't received the amount yet. If they don't give the money, what will we (state government) tell the farmers? What will these farmers do without work?” he said.

Bhattacharjee, who visited some drought-affected districts of the state last week, had also earlier requested the Centre to send a team to review the situation in these afflicted areas.

Paddy-sowing has not been possible across about 11 lakh hectares in West Bengal, the country's largest rice producer, this year due to a 30 per cent deficit in rainfall.

Although the state government has decided to pump in an additional Rs 50 crore to salvage the situation, alternative employment remains of importance.

ADB grants $100m loan for Indo-Bangla power line

Financial Express Report

VOL 18 NO 94 REGD NO DA 1589

Dhaka, Wednesday September 1 2010

 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday approved US$100 million loan for Bangladesh to install Indo-Bangla cross-border power transmission line in a bid to import electricity, officials said.

The Manila-based lender said its board of directors approved the loan for the Bangladesh-India 40-kilometre power grid installation project.

The government in early August completed negotiations for getting the loan. Bangladesh will install the 400-kilovolt cross-border power transmission line, investing Tk 10.40 billion ($150 million) by June 2012.

Power Division officials said the state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCB) has already undertaken the project to build the line having the capacity of exchanging 500-megawatt electricity between the two nations.

About 100-kilometre cross-border power grid would connect Bangladesh's western Bheramara and India's eastern Baharampur in West Bengal.

The PGCB would install nearly 40-km grid from Bheramara to the border point, and the rest 60-km portion from the border point to Baharampur would be installed by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCI) by its own fund.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and PGCI on July 26 signed a 35-year power transmission agreement to import 500-mw electricity, starting from late 2012.

The agreement keeps the provision for Bangladesh to export power to India in the future, and the transmission system will have the capacity to exchange 500-mw of power soon after the system is launched.

The project marks a new era in energy cooperation in South Asia, and is likely to herald further power trading agreements, resulting to more effective use of energy resources in the region, said Sultan Hafeez Rahman, director general of ADB's South Asia Department.

"Connecting of the two grids demonstrates substantial economic benefits that come from enhanced regional cooperation, helping to address energy gaps across the region," he added.

The ADB's $100 million loan has a 32-year repayment period including a grace period of eight years, with 1.0 per cent interest per annum during the grace period and 1.5 per cent for the rest of the term.

Mamata deployed RPF for Lalgarh rally, kept Centre, state in dark

New Delhi, 1st Sept. 2010 : When it came to security for her August 9 rally in Lalgarh in West Bengal, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, in addition to roping in trusted retired IPS officers, ordered the deployment of the Railways Protection Force (RPF) at the venue.

The RPF deployment was made without keeping the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and West Bengal Police in the loop and this has generated a lot of heat.

The RPF deployment, official sources told The Indian Express, was a violation of standard operating procedures governing the security of VIPs like Union Ministers. “It was completely against the directives of the Blue Book which lays down rules on how security should be provided to VIPs. The RPF presence at the rally was unauthorised,” the sources said.

Two RPF companies (around 200 personnel) were deployed for the Lalgarh rally. Senior RPF officials from the Eastern and the South Eastern Railways were also present there. The RPF personnel were present in the motorcade, at the ground where the rally took place and provided cover to the dais from where Banerjee spoke.

“Being a Central paramilitary force, the Railways Ministry required MHA clearance before deploying RPF in Lalgarh. No such permission was taken. The RPF should have coordinated with the state police since the latter was primarily responsible for Banerjee’s security. That too was not done, leading to a situation where the local police got sidelined, opening gaps in overall security,” sources said.

Last year, Banerjee declined to spare RPF personnel for election duties in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. It was only after a rap from the MHA that Rail Bhavan allowed the deployment of the force. On another occasion, Banerjee declined to clear a list of RPF officials nominated for a FBI-sponsored 12-day training programme on railway security in the United States because no official from home state West Bengal was on the list.

Maoist camp: Trinamool misrepresents fact

THE REAL PICTURE: Trinamool Congress MPs demonstrating outside the Parliament House in New Delhi on Tuesday alleging CPI(M) atrocities in West Bengal. In the photograph, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar,MP (second from left), displays a poster saying it is a camp of "CPI(M) goons" in the Jangal Mahal area of West Bengal. It is actually a picture (at right) of armed Maoists outside a camp in the forestsof Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. That file photo, taken by our Staff Photographer Akhilesh Kumar, appeared in the online edition of The Hindu on March 15, 2010.--- Photo: R.V. Moorthy 

By Marcus Dam

KOLKATA: Even as West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee on Tuesday described the Trinamool Congress as a party of “grotesque lies and slander,” an MP of the party, demonstrating with some of her colleagues outside the Parliament House in New Delhi, was seen sporting a poster with a picture apparently depicting Maoists in one of their training camps in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh.

The poster, borne by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, representing Barasat in West Bengal's North 24 Paraganas district, read: “All camps by CPI (M) goons in Jangal Mahal areas must be disbanded.” Below this was a picture showing men with their weapons.

The same picture appeared in the on-line edition of The Hindu on March 15 this year (http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article 245722. ece) under the heading “Centre warns of retaliatory attacks by Maoists” with the caption: A Maoist training camp in the forest of Dantewada district.”

The Trinamool MPs were demonstrating against alleged atrocities by the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

This begs the question: Was the Trinamool Congress MP (Ms. Ghosh Dastidar) misrepresenting facts and passing off a picture showing armed Maoists in a camp in Dantewada as one of CPI(M) goons in the Jangal Mahal area (a forest area in West Bengal spanning the south-west districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia)?

The Trinamool leadership has been claiming that CPI(M) activists have been entering the Jangal Mahal area and setting up camps for their armed activists under cover of the on-going security operations against the Maoists there.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has even demanded that the security operations be withdrawn even as she claimed that they were being used by the CPI(M) to gain ground in the region, particularly in those areas of Paschim Medinipur district considered the hot-bed of Maoist activity.

On Monday, the eve of his retirement, Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh told journalists at the Secretariat that “no evidence of the presence of armed supporters of the CPI(M) has been found in Lalgarh and its vicinity.”

THE HINDU, 1st September, 2010

It's all lies and slander, says Buddhadeb

By Ananya Dutta

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress for “being a party of grotesque lies and slander.”

“Here is a political party [Trinamool Congress] that is surviving on lies….How long will the people of West Bengal accept these lies? I believe that they will on no account accept the grotesque lies and slander of this party,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said at a rally to commemorate the death of 80 supporters of the Left parties during a protest demanding food in the city in 1959.

Mr. Bhattacharjee cited several examples of “unfounded claims” made by Ms. Banerjee — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was responsible for incidents such as the devastating fire at the Stephen Court, the Jnaneswari Express derailment, the accident in Sainthia and the disruption of her convoy on her return from Lalgarh.

“Lies, all lies,” he emphatically declared to a stadium full of supporters, who responded with a thundering applause.

The Trinamool was a party “without a policy or agenda” and it solely depended on Ms. Banerjee's word. The State had already suffered many losses because of them, Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Referring to the Trinamool-led agitations in Singur and Nandigram, he said: “Everyone in West Bengal knows the losses that the State has suffered. Shall we accept more of these injustices? The nexus between the Trinamool and Maoists began in Nandigram where we could not defeat them and had to retreat……It will have to be seen if we can limit them to the Jangalmahal region or will the joint army of the Trinamool and Maoists convert all of West Bengal into Jangalmahal.”

Several people in the State had begun to believe in the lies being spread by the Trinamool and it was the responsibility of the supporters of the Left parties to reach out to them and convince them otherwise, he added.

Farmer abandoned

Mr. Bhattacharjee raised concerns at food security and the abdication of responsibility by the Centre.

“The Centre has abandoned the farmer. It is not even spending what was spent earlier in the form of subsidies,” he said. The country's agricultural productivity had dropped over the last few years.

He questioned the Centre's claim that agricultural productivity would increase fourfold, adding that a situation was arising wherein the country's food security would be on the brink of a breakdown.

“While rice and wheat are rotting in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India, people will be forced to die of starvation,” he said.

Mr. Bhattacharjee appealed to the Centre to release funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to drought-affected West Bengal.

THE HINDU, 1st Sept. 2010

Matix to set up ammonia plant in West Bengal

Aug 31 2010

Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals, the flagship company of the Matix Group, is raising around Rs 3,500 crore from a consortium of banks for one of the world’s largest single stream gas based ammonia cum urea plants in Panagarh, West Bengal.

A person close to the development told Financial Chronicle, that the company, owned by Nishant Kanodia of Datamatics Group, is raising the debt from a consortium of six to eight banks, lead arranged by IDBI Bank in a month’s time.

The equity contribution for the Rs 5,000 crore project is around Rs 1,500 crore, the person said.

Matix is developing a 3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) plant to cater to the huge shortfall of urea in West Bengal and its surrounding regions of Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The Matix plant will help in reducing this shortfall to 4 mtpa in three years time in a radius of around 350 kilometers. The company is also setting up a large dealer networks for marketing and distribution of urea to farmers in the region.

“Matix has identified around 1000 dealers and is expected to shortlist arou¬nd 500-600 dealers to distribute the product to the farmers in short time,” the person said.

In the first phase of development the company is setting up around 1.5 mtpa of ammonia and urea capacity, which would be commissioned by 2012.

The orders for equipment have been finalised with global equipment suppliers, and construction on the site has begun. KBR of the US and Saipem of Italy are among strategic inter¬national partners providing technology, basic and detail¬ed engineering, procurement, construction and comm¬issioning support. The Matix plant will be the first urea plant in the world with feedstock supply of coal bed methane (CBM) gas exclusively sourced from Essar Group’s Raniganj CBM block, near Panagarh in West Bengal.

Published on mydigitalfc.com (http://www.mydigitalfc.com)

 

© 2010 Financial Chronicle, All rights reserved

Drought-affected West Bengal hit by lack of farm investment

By Romita Datta

LIVE MINT Posted: Tue, Aug 31 2010. 9:26 PM IST

The drought, caused by a 32% shortfall in rain, has affected at least one-fifth of the state’s cultivable land

Burdwan, West Bengal: There’s suddenly a flurry of activity in Karotia, a nondescript village in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. Lately, a lot of politicians and state government officials have been visiting the village, and they say work on a nearly forgotten 14km irrigation canal is going to start soon.

It’s been nearly 36 years since the state government first proposed to dig the canal, recalls Azizur Haque, the local panchayat chief. It was to have brought enough water to irrigate some 5,000 acres of land, benefiting at least 30,000 farmers, he says. Yet, the canal didn’t materialize because the state’s environment department didn’t clear the proposal.

Click here To view a slideshow on problems faced by West Bengal farmers due to decreasing rainfall and government apathy

But thanks to one of their brethren, Karotia’s farmers might not have to wait much longer.

Jitu Bagdi, a farmer from this village, killed himself on 23 August. Hounded by moneylenders, he drank poison after his crop failed because of the drought, says his widow, Rupa Bagdi.

Since then, leaders from across political parties and state government officials are bending over backward to “do meaningful things” for Karotia’s farmers. Besides offering financial support to Rupa Bagdi to launch her own business, the state government has revived the abandoned irrigation canal project.

West Bengal is facing the worst rain shortage in many decades, and the state government has declared a drought in 11 out of 19 districts, including the highly productive ones in the southern part of the state such as Burdwan and Hooghly.

The crop loss has been estimated at Rs 6,250 crore, according to West Bengal’s finance minister Asim Dasgupta, and the people of the state have already begun feeling it—in Kolkata, the price of rice, the most widely consumed foodgrain, has already started rising as the state braces for a foodgrain deficit of 2.7 million tonnes (mt).

The drought, caused by a 32% shortfall in rain, has affected at least one-fifth of the state’s 5.2 million ha of cultivable land, and it shows that West Bengal’s Left Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, that has ruled the state for 33 years, has done little to create irrigation facilities, say economists.

Even last year, there was some rain shortage, but it affected only around 200,000 ha.

“It is sad that for a state like West Bengal, where at least 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture, irrigation is not (the) top priority,” says Mihir Rakshit, a former professor of economics at the University of Calcutta. “It’s the same across the country despite so many droughts and crop failures—it’s really unfortunate.”

The state has allocated as little as Rs459 crore for its irrigation department in the current year. What makes matters worse is the fact that the state government doesn’t charge farmers for irrigation facilities such as pump sets and tubewells, which means the department on its own does not generate any revenue, according to a state government official, who did not want to be named.

“It’s not surprising therefore that even in this situation, only 5,938 state government-run minor irrigation facilities (pump sets and tubewells) are currently available,” he said. “We used to have around 6,000 such facilities in 1990. Now it’s fewer because at least 543 are out of commission for want of repair.”

The state government provides irrigation facilities to only around 339,000 ha of land, whereas private facilities serve another 1.3 million ha. The target was to bring at least 3.2 million ha of land in the state under irrigation, he added. “It would take years to get close to that target.”

Besides spending more on irrigation facilities, state governments should encourage research on dry farming and water management, says Rakshit.

West Bengal is now drawing up plans to support “alternative farming”, or cultivation of crops that require less water than paddy, according to Dasgupta. The state government promises to distribute seeds and train farmers, but “alternative farming” can only happen, if at all, next year.

Meanwhile, the state has sanctioned Rs354 crore for immediate relief measures, and has requested Rs600 crore more from the Centre.

The drought couldn’t have come at worse time for the CPM: it is facing an anti-incumbency wave, and assembly polls in the state are due next year.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre isn’t supportive “for obvious reasons”, says CPM state secretariat member Robin Deb. The Trinamool Congress, the state’s main opposition party, which is a part of the UPA, isn’t pressuring the Centre either, according to Deb.

Subsidies are not long-term solutions, according to Abhirup Sarkar, a professor of economics at Kolkata’s Indian Statistical Institute. “Public investment is the need of the hour,” he said. “Agriculture has been neglected by the West Bengal government for at least 20 years, and that has led to a decline in agricultural productivity.”

The per capita production of foodgrains in West Bengal is 525gm, against the national average of 413gm, but because per capita purchasing power is very low in West Bengal, cases of starvation and poverty are widespread in the state, according to Sarkar.

At least two farmer suicides till now have been blamed on the drought, and both farmers were indebted to money lenders. People are forced to borrow at exorbitant rates because state cooperatives lend only around Rs7,400 per acre, whereas farmers say they need at least Rs45,000.

Banks are doing their bit by rescheduling loans for farmers affected. The country’s biggest lender, State Bank of India, is to defer by a year the repayment of at least Rs500 crore for the drought-hit farmers of West Bengal, according to Suriender Kumar, chief general manager of the bank for its West Bengal circle.

Agriculture Insurance Co. of India Ltd, which provides risk cover to farmers, expects claims from West Bengal this year to be at an all-time high, topping the Rs40 crore paid by it three years ago following floods. Delayed monsoons triggered claims of Rs18 crore last year, according to Dasarathi Singh, the regional general manager of the insurer.

This year, the situation is much worse. But will West Bengal face a famine? That’s the state administration’s biggest fear. It may be considering the fact that last year, when the rain shortfall affected only around 200,000 ha of cultivable land, the state could produce just 13.8 mt of foodgrains, and had nearly no surplus.

Manish Basu contributed to this story.

romita.d@livemint.com

Political compulsions behind clean chit to Mamata Banerjee: Brinda karat

PTI, New Delhi, August 30, 2010

CPI(M) attacked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for giving a clean chit to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for her remarks on Maoist leader Azad’s death, saying the Congress leader was bound by political compulsions.

“Being a junior partner of Trinamool in West Bengal, he is trying to defend the indefensible. The Finance Minister is bound by political compulsions,” senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat told reporters outside Parliament.

In Kolkata on Sunday, Mr. Mukherjee had said that Ms. Banerjee advocating talks with the Maoists doesn’t mean she has links with them.

He had also said though the Railway Minister was part of the UPA, her party could have independent thinking on issues.

Commenting on the matter, CPI(M) polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury said, “the Prime Minister should explain why he is saying that Maoist violence is the biggest threat to the internal security of the country. He should say that whatever he has said is wrong and what Ms. Banerjee said is right.”

Include all Darjeeling parties in talks: Yechury

By Agencies, 30/08/2010

All political parties from the hills should be invited to the next round of tripartite talks on an interim council proposed to be set up in Darjeeling, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury has said.

"So far, the Centre has invited only one party. Other parties too have a say in hill affairs," he said, in a reference to talks between the Centre and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has put its demand for Gorkhaland on the backburner and settled for the interim hill council to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

All political parties in Darjeeling should be invited to the seventh round of talks on September 7, he said while delivering the Ratanlal Brahmin Memorial Lecture at Darjeeling Gymkhana Club last evening.

The CPI(M) leader also said he would raise this demand in Parliament and take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Earlier in the month, the West Bengal government had broadly agreed on the Centre's draft proposal to set up an interim council in Darjeeling.

But all political outfits that came to participate in the subsequent talks convened by the state government to find a solution to the Darjeeling problem rejected the Central government's proposal on the contours of the Gorkhaland Autonomous Authority that is supposed to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).

Representatives of the Trinamool Congress and BJP who came to attend the meeting as part of the Democratic Front, however, did not join it after receiving instructions from their leadership. The outfits that did not attend the meeting included the GNLF and CPRM.

Mother Teresa film festival packs in 45,000

Posted By jessy On August 30, 2010 @ 4:14 pm In Indian News

The Mother Teresa film festival was a resounding success with over 45,000 people attending the four-day event organizers in Kolkata say.

It was an honor for the West Bengal state government and its film center to host the event, said Nilanjan Chatterjee.

Chatterjee, the head of the government film center, was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Third Mother Teresa International Film Festival on Aug. 30.

I was proud to be part of the festival that marked the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, he said.

Nandan, the film center, along with Calcutta Archdiocese co-organized the festival.

The event made history by giving the disabled an exclusive opportunity to watch films, Chatterjee said.

No other film festival has ever done this, he added.

The festival showcased 18 films about Blessed Teresa, with 64 screenings, for some 45,000 people, said festival director Sunil Lucas.

I am “amazed” at the response, all the shows were packed with people sitting in the aisles or standing at the back,” Lucas said.

Besides the two special screenings for 500 disabled people, there were also more than 7,000 residents from Missionaries of Charity care centers, he said.

The festival will now tour India over the next six months, and will be staged in 15 other countries, he added.

Gaurav Singh Ray, a business school student, said he “was able to see missioners’ selfless service through these films.”

The cooperation between Church and secular organizations in staging the event was very moving, said Canadian Jesuit filmmaker Father Pierre Belanger who presented his film The Making of a Saint.

Source: ucanews.com

CPI(M) urges Manmohan to clarify Centre’s position on Maoists

PTI, Kolkata, August 30, 2010

CPI(M) asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a statement in Parliament regarding Centre’s position on Maoists after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee backed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s stand on Maoist leader Azad’s killing.

“Let the Prime Minister give a statement in Parliament and spell out clearly the correct position of the Centre regarding the Maoists,” CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said, commenting on Mr. Mukherjee’s observation that he found “nothing wrong” in Ms. Banerjee’s statement.

At a rally in Lalagarh on August 9, Ms. Banerjee had said Azad’s killing on July 2 was “not correct” - a statement for which she faced drew flak from the opposition parties.

The senior Congress leader also said there was no reason to suspect that the Railway Minister’s party had links with Maoists.

“If she thinks that the Maoist problem can be negotiated through dialogue and invites the Maoists for talks then that doesn’t mean that she has links with the Maoists. She has got every right to make an independent statement” Mr. Mukherjee had stated at a book release programme at Kolkata Press Club.

Refuting Ms. Banerjee’s charge that the CPI(M) had set up armed camps in the Maoist-dominated areas of West Bengal, Mr. Bose said, “We do not have any such camps alleged by the Opposition. But we do have some camps for the people there who were rendered homeless by the terror unleashed by the Trinamool-Maoist combination.”

GJM withdraws indefinite strike in Darjeeling

PTI, Aug 30, 2010, 02.55pm IST

DARJEELING: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has withdrawn the indefinite strike called in Darjeeling hills from Monday in view of the tripartite talks with the Centre and West Bengal government on September 7.

The decision was announced by GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri after a meeting with the Darjeeling District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police Devendra Pratap Singh.

The indefinite strike had been called to demand production of Nicole Tamang, the main suspect behind the May 21 killing of Gorkha leader Madan Tamang in the town, in court by Monday.

To press for the demand, Giri said batches of seven GJM supporters would fast in Kalimpomg, Kurseong and Darjeeling from September 1 to 17.

A GJM 'investigation team' has also been formed, he said, adding it would leave for Assam and Nepal in search of Nicole.

He also announced that henceforth government and Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council offices in the hills would be allowed to function unhindered.

Top economist favourite for Presi VC post

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN, Aug 27, 2010, 01.19am IST

KOLKATA: Jayati Ghosh, one of the world's leading women economists, could be the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University. She is said to be the forerunner among three names doing the rounds for the prestigious post.

The 55-year-old Ghosh is now the chairperson of the centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her credentials as a researcher and scholar are so strong that if she does get the chair, her supposed closeness to the ruling CPM would not raise eyebrows.

Ever since the Presidency University Bill was passed, all talk has centred around who would be the first vice-chancellor, especially because of the international significance of the institution. The search committee that has been set up by the state higher education department to suggest three names to be placed before the chancellor ( governor M K Narayanan) came in for some criticism because the members are known to be close to Alimuddin Street. It was speculated that they would choose a candidate who would look up to the CPM for directions.

The three members of the search committee are eminent economist Amiya Bagchi, vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University P N Ghosh and former director of ISI Shankar Pal. A large number of former Presidency students, faculty members and students have been crusading against the appointment of a V-C who would be close to the CPM.

Jayati Ghosh's name is seen as the most acceptable one. She was educated at Delhi University, JNU and the University of Cambridge. Her specialties include globalisation, international finance, employment patterns in developing countries, macroeconomic policy and issues related to gender and development.

Ghosh has held positions at Tufts University and Cambridge University and in academic institutions throughout India. She is one of the founders of the Economic Research Foundation, New Delhi, a non-profit trust devoted to progressive economic research. She is also executive secretary of the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS), a network of economists critical of the mainstream economic paradigm of neo-liberalism.

She was the principal author of the West Bengal Human Development Report, which has received the UNDP Prize for excellence in analysis. She regularly writes for the country's leading financial newspapers and magazines and also in Ganashakti, the CPM's mouthpiece. Her husband Abhijit Sen, also an economist is a member of the Planning Commission. It is little known, but she is very well educated in Western Classical music and occasionally lectures on the genius of Mozart.

All the three members of the search committee were tightlipped about it. State higher education minister Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury said: "This is not a question you should be asking me or I should be discussing publicly at this stage. There is a process involved. The search committee is working to a deadline."

1 in 10 Sunderbans tigers man-eater

Subhro Niyogi, TNN, Aug 25, 2010, 01.18am IST

KOLKATA: Bangladeshi tiger researcher Monirul H Khan believes the hostile terrain of the Sunderbans is breeding man-eaters and fears the ratio may increase as it becomes a part of the Royal Bengal's genes.

"One in every 10 tigers that inhabit the Sunderbans is a man-eater. That is the estimation on the Bangladeshi side where 50 people are mauled and eaten by tigers every year. As people fall prey and young cubs, too, feed on human carcass, more tigers will become man-eaters in the future. The only way out is to stop entry of villagers into tiger territory in the core of the forest," Khan said.

The official figure of deaths is much lower as the government only takes into account casualties against the number of entry passes.

While the forest department in Bangladesh claims there are around 400 tigers in the eastern section of the Sunderbans covering 5,770 sq km, Khan says the real figure is half as much. If one goes by his count, based on camera-trapping, relative density and pray density rather than pug marks), there are at least 20 man-eaters in the Bangladeshi section of the Sunderbans.

In the western part that lies in West Bengal, the number of man-eaters would be similar since as many people die each year when villagers enter the forest to collect honey and cut wood. "The man-tiger conflict happens only when people enter the core area. The tiger kills to protect its territory. Unlike in other forests where only tigers that are incapacitated by age or injury turn to prey on man, in the mangrove forests, even healthy tigers turn man-eaters," he said.

Unlike the Sunderbans in West Bengal, across the border tigers get killed by men when they stray into human habitation.

"Every year, around two-three tigers die when they stray into villages. There is no system of tranquilizing and capturing tigers for release in the wilderness unlike the practice here," Khan said, adding that awareness on tiger conservation was low and forest department resources poor.

Khan has through research devised a means to discourage tiger straying by forming vigil teams comprising 15 men and five dogs that receive intensive training to ward off tigers.

In the city to attend a symposium organized by Bengal Tiger Bachaao on man-tiger conflict, Khan felt forest officials on both sides could liaison better to exchange learning and ideas.

"There is a need for greater cooperation to stop poachers and smugglers because they tend to slink away to the other side after the crime. If foresters on both sides act in unison, poaching can be curbed to a great extent," Khan reasoned.

Comprehensive Social Security Scheme for Transport Workers

KOLKATA: AFTER “beedi” and construction workers, the Left Front government of West Bengal has recently launched a comprehensive social security scheme for the workers of transport sector, which is the first of its kind and unique in India. This scheme will cover at least 14 lakh workers of bus, mini bus, taxi, auto rickshaws, truck, mini truck, waterways and other categories of mass transport.

Although the UPA government had taken the step to form the National Commission of Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) with Arjun Sengupta as its chairman, back in September 2004, nothing concrete has been done so far by the union government for the social security of workers of unorganised sector.

In contrast, at the initiative of the Left Front government of West Bengal, for the first time in the country, a provident fund scheme for the unorganised sector was introduced in the state in the year 2000-01. The number of workers enrolled under this scheme till date is 17 lakh, which is expected to reach the mark of 25 lakh by the end of this financial year. Moreover, around 85,000 beneficiaries have been registered upto October 2009, under the Building and other Construction Workers’ Welfare programme.

 

Under the Revised Integrated Housing Scheme for Beedi Workers, (2005) taken up by the ministry of labour and employment, government of India, an amount of Rs 40,000 is given as subsidy to the individual beedi worker of this state for construction of dwelling houses. In response to that, the state government also pays an amount of Rs 10,000 per tenement as uniform subsidy and another Rs 2500 per tenement for electrification of their houses. A state 'Assisted Health Scheme' has also been introduced to the unorganised sector workers of the state registered under the Provident Fund scheme but not covered by the social security scheme for Beedi Workers, transport workers and construction workers.

Under the scheme for transport sector workers, launched recently, each worker will get a pension on monthly basis after retirement from 60 years of age till his death. But in case of disability of permanent nature caused by an accident, the worker will be entitled to get the pension since the occurrence of the accident. Apart from this, in case of accidental death, the family of the worker will receive a sum of Rs 1 lakh as financial assistance under the scheme.

Among other facilities and support provided by this scheme include :

Rs 50,000 for permanent disability

Rs 25,000 for partial disability

Rs 10,000 for treatment of diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, leprosy, cardiac problems, renal disorders, AIDS, thalassemia etc.

Rs 30,000 for surgical purpose

3,000 as maternity assistance (maximum two times)

Educational assistance for children includes Rs 2,000 for Higher Secondary level, Rs 3,000 for graduation level, Rs 5,000 for post graduate level and Rs 10,000 for studies either engineering or medical

Rs 5,000 as assistance for marriage of their daughters

Rs 30,000 as a financial assistance for normal death of the worker

So far as the magnitude of poverty and dimension of the vulnerability of the workers of unorganised sectors are concerned, the scenario is more or less the same across India as a whole. But the approach adopted by the Left Front government of Bengal to resolve the crisis may definitely be considered as forward moving step towards making a difference to the lives of workers in the unorganised sector.