The Hindu : National : Left flays appointment of multilateral agencies

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Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

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National

Left flays appointment of multilateral agencies

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 8. The Left parties today described as an "unwarranted step" the United Progressive Alliance Government's decision to include representatives of international agencies in the consultative groups of the Planning Commission and demanded that the move be reconsidered.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the All-India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party said the Manmohan Singh Government should explain why it wanted World Bank representation on the Commission when the Congress in Andhra Pradesh had held the World Bank's structural adjustment policies responsible for the miserable plight of farmers and the ordinary people.

The joint statement came in response to the move to include the representatives of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and an American consultancy group on the consultative committees. The Planning Commission was accountable to the Government and mandated to draft and oversee the implementation of the Five-Year plans. "To include representatives of international agencies and foreign private companies, who have their own agendas and who are in no way accountable to the Indian people in the planning process, is an unwarranted step," the statement said.

The signatories to the statement include the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat, the AIFB general secretary, Debabrata Biswas, and the RSP central committee member, Abani Roy.

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