Protest against anti-people policies Strike against BJP govt policies

NewsDesk

Life came to a stands still in West Bengal as the 24 hours general strike called by the Central Trade Unions to protest hefty increases in prices of essential commodities, got underway from six in the morning today. There were no reports of any untoward incident so far.

In the city bus and terms were off the roads, shopkeepers spontaneously downed the shutters and streets were deserted. Long-distance trains scheduled to leave the city today were cancelled and suburban train services from Sealdah and Howrah, the tow major railheads, were also withdrawn. No flights took off Dum Dum airport in the morning. Loading and unloading operations at the Calcutta port were also suspended. No activity in factories in the industrial suburbs of the city was also reported. In north Bengal, tea plantations workers also abstained from duty.

It is the season of massive protests, state and countrywide bandhs and dharnas, against the anti-people policies of the BJP-led government at the centre. Politicians, economists and administrators all agree that the latest order of the Centre allowing hefty increases in prices essential commodities, such as rice, wheat, sugar supplied through ration shops and those of urea fertilizer and cooking gas would result in a price spiral in the coming months. And the BJP's, next harsh budget will also have to be watched very keenly.

As West Bengal and Tripura observing the General Strike on 8^th February, the people of Kerala will be going to the Strick action on 9^th, as a part of the country wide Protest day.

The working class in West Bengal is already up in arms calling a 24-hour bandh in the State on February 8 to record its protest against the rise in prices of a essential commodities. Leaders of the Central trade unions, such as the CITU, AITUC, UTUC, TUCC, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Eastern Railwaymen's Union issued the call for the general strike in West Bengal on February 8 after a meeting in the city on Tuesday. The ruling left Front in the State has extended full support to the bandh call given by the trade unions on February 8.The Left Front Chairman, Sailen Dasgupta has said in a statement that massive movements would have to be launched for revoking the Central government order increasing the prices of essential commodities. The CPI(M) State Committee Secretary, Anil Biswas has requested the State Congress leadership to call of their proposed strike on the same issue on February 12. The Left Front Committee chairman, Sailen Dasgupta has however called upon the people or the State to observe protest day on February 9 for which a call has been issued by the Left parties from Delhi. The protest day will be a countrywide affair. The ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala has called a general strike in that state on February 9 to protest the increase in prices of rice, wheat, sugar supplied through the public distribution system by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Even though the BJP-led government at the Centre, afraid of a countrywide agitation by the Left and democratic parties, has rolled back the increased prices of wheat and rice in ration shops for people below the poverty line, the Left and democratic parties will not discontinue the agitation till the Central government revoking the earlier order in full.

This is evident from a statement of the West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu who has said that the left parties were mulling over a proposal for calling a countrywide general strike against rocketing of prices of essential commodities.

At the trade union leader's meeting in Calcutta, President of the West Bental unit of the CITU, Niren Ghosh, said it was imperative that the trade unions or the working class jointly fight the irresponsible acts of the BJP government at the Centre. Secretary of the West Bengal unit of the CITU, Chittabrata Mazumdar, was of the opinion that the working class could not sit idle in the face of the continued onslaughts of the BJP and the Government it leads the Centre. Suubrata Mukherjee, President, West Bengal INTUC, speaking about the proposed general strike called by the trade unions of February 8 said that this was not an end to the retrograde policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre, rather it was just a beginning.

The West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu has demanded that the BJP-led government immediately withdraw its order increasing prices of rice, wheat, sugar and cooking gas. He also has asked the Centre to call immediately a meeting of all the Chief Ministers to discuss the price rise issue.

Basu at the same time gave enough indication that a massive movement including countrywide strike would be organized to protest the price rise ordered by the Centre bypassing the Parliament. The Centre took recourse to devious means such as administrative order to put heavy financial burden on the common man, Basu said.

On Monday Basu wrote to the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee criticising the Centre's decision. Basu was surprised that the Centre had unilaterally taken the decision to make hefty increases in the prices of rice, wheat, sugar supplied through the ration shops. The common man, most of them living below the poverty line would be hit hard following the government measure. For men above the proverty line, the cooking gas would cost 12 per cent more. Rice price would be 30 per cent more and for wheat they will be required to pay an additional 40 per cent. For people below the proverty line, rice would cost 29 per cent more and wheat will be 30 per cent dearer. The unnaturally high price increase of essential commodities would result in a fall in real income of the poor people. For them food security would also be affected.

Basu repeated his criticism of the Central government for bypassing the Parliament as also for not consulting the State governments. He even went to the extent of saying that the Centre had not clearly spelt out the reasons for such anti-people policies and measures. If the Centre wanted to reduce the deficit in the current year's deficit in the Budget it could do so by other means. Basu recommended taking recourse to unearthing black money which amounted to a lakh crores a year. A fraction of such huge black money could resolve the problem of budget deficit and the common people would not have fallen prey to this price rise. So the only alternative left at the moment was revoking the order on prices which were unnaturally high and he called for an emergency meeting of the Chief Ministers to discuss the issue.

The state's Finance Minister, Ashim Dasgupta in his reaction to the price increase of essential commodities ordered by the Centre said there might be further bouts of increasing prices before and after the presentation of the Central Budget in the Lok Sabha. He feared the present trend was ominous and felt that a price spiral in the economy would follow.

Called by the Left Front Committee of Tripura, a 12-hour statewide dawn to dusk bandh began in right earnest today. The bandh has been called to protest agaisnt the unnaturally high increase in prices of wheat, rice, sugar, cooking gas and urea fertilizer ordered by the BJP- led government at the Centre and to demand allotment larger number of security personnel by the Centre for counter-insurgency operations in the state.

All vehicular movement in the capital town here and in the districts remained suspended as employees and workers joined the strike. Commercial activities were also came to halt as people particiapating in the strike remained indoors.

Earlier on Thursday the ruling Left Front cabinet expressed grave concern over the Centre's order increasing prices of essential commodities. The cabinet decided to write to the Centre requesting it to exempt the north eastern states considering their backwardness.

The Left Front committee in the state also expressed deep concern for the barbarous attacks of the NLFT extremists at Kanchanmala bazar in Bishalgarh on February 1. Raids later on four panchayats areas were conducted where eight persons were killed and 200 houses torched. The Left Front said that attacks at Kanchanmala by the banned extremist outfit, NLFT and raids by criminals belonging to two communal and ethnic groups clearly indicated that these attacks were pre-planned. These attacks were part of a deep conspiracy too hatched by national and international forces to destabilize the Left Front government in Tripura and create fissures in the harmonious relations between the tribal and non-tribal people in the State. It said that when the Left Front made all preparations for the three-tier panchayat elections in the state, the anti-left front forces vested interests and exploiting classes were inciting violence utilizing the extremists and other criminals. They also wanted to disrupt the democratic processes initiated by the Left Front. These forces were also tanning the sensitive communal issues too.

The Left Front added that the Centre was shirking from its constitutional and moral responsibilities by not sending to Tripura additional battalions of security personnel required to counter the extremist outfits who are aided by foreign imperialist forces. The role being played by the Vajpayee government only provided impetus to the savage activities of the terrorists. The State congress had called a bandh today.