NEW DELHI: The Left on Thursday delivered a "friendly warning" to the Government over the proposed reduction of interest on Employees' Provident Fund deposits but told the Opposition that if it was waiting for its "bite" to bring it back to power, the wait would last five years.

While the Left forced an adjournment in the Lok Sabha on the issue, it clashed with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha and had its say.

Led by Dipankar Mukherjee (Communist Party of India-Marxist), the Left parties protested in the Upper House against the BJP's attempt to elicit clarifications from the Prime Minister on the Volcker Report, pointing out that views on other issues of public concern such as the EPF rate and the cooking gas crisis must also be heard.

Charging the United Progressive Alliance Government with the same "kind of omission" the previous regime was guilty of, he delivered a "friendly warning," asking it to restore the EPF interest rate to 12 per cent.

Digvijay Singh (Janata Dal-United) wondered when Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) would "bite instead of only barking."

"Don't wait for our bite to bring you back to power. You will have to wait for five years," Mr. Yechury replied, adding the Government had rescinded on disinvestment in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited following the stand taken by the Left.

Asked outside the House about the Left's options if the Government was unyielding, Mr. Yechury said, "we do not want the situation to reach that stage." The National Common Minimum Programme did not specify micro details such as the rate on EPF deposits. He hoped that the government would consider the Left's demand in the right spirit.

In his reply, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri said the government was "sympathetic" to workers' interests and all decisions would be taken after keeping this aspect in mind.

However, in the Lok Sabha, no response was forthcoming despite vociferous demands from the Left.

Earlier, asserting that trade unions and Left parties would "no longer be a stamping machine for government policies," Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) questioned the propriety of the announcement of the EPF rate reduction outside Parliament when it was in session.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail