The Hindu : Kerala News : CPI to strengthen fight against inequalities

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Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

CPI to strengthen fight against inequalities

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM, MARCH 5. Discussions on the draft political resolution were completed at the 19th State conference of the Communist Party of India (CPI) which entered the third day today.

Briefing mediapersons, the CPI State secretary, Veliyam Bhargavan, said the conference endorsed the view that the party should engage itself in fight against social inequalities, especially in the Hindi belt, where the social reform movements were not as strong as they were in States like Kerala West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The fight against casteism should also be strengthened in these areas.

Fifteen persons participated in the general discussions which followed the group discussions today. The discussions on Sunday will be centred on the Organisational Report. One of the key findings of the report is that, in spite of the highly conducive political climate for the communist movement to grow, the party has registered a negative growth in membership which has come down by more than 10,000. However, the report makes it clear that there is no need for worry as there is no need for the continuation of ineffective members in the organisation. But, the report takes a serious view of the fall in representation of specific groups like women and youth and also some of the key districts.

Another area of concern for the party appears to be the direct entry of communal organisations into politics. It names the SNDP in this regard. The moneyed class is using these organisations as instruments for power-brokering, the report notes.

The report takes a positive view of the agitationist mode in the Adivassi struggle and points out that a political awareness was visible among the Adivassi people.

A detailed reference to the ice-cream parlour sex racket case in the report may point to the willingness of the party to continue the struggle on the issue in the coming days. The report also makes a dig at the trade unions whose leadership was `too busy' to participate in party programmes. The work among the farm labourers too has come up for criticism.

The party general secretary, A.B. Bardan, is expected to participate in Sunday's proceedings.

Paddy procurement

The CPI has called upon the State Government to take steps to make the paddy procurement programme more effective.

Paddy production centres like Kottayam, Kuttanad, Thrissur and Palakkad were facing an unprecedented situation on account of the Governmental apathy in setting up necessary infrastructure for paddy procurement even though the harvesting season was nearly over, the conference pointed out in a resolution.

That the Government had failed to take effective steps to give away the arrears of last season, the resolution noted and asked the authorities to take steps for processing of the procured paddy and also for its distribution through the public distribution system.

The conference also decided to organise State-wide railway station marches on March 11 in protest against the disregard shown to the interests of the State in the just presented Railway Budget.

The budget had not only failed to provide any new railway facilities for the State, but also had made recommendations which would cut down the existing facilities, the resolution noted.

The conference asked authorities to amend the budget taking the interest of the State into account.

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