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`Introspection' would have been in order: Raghavulu

Staff Reporter

Trains guns on State Government for `toeing' World Bank line

VIJAYAWADA: As the Congress Government completed two years in office on Sunday and observed it as `re-dedication day, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) B.V. Raghavulu launched a sharp attack on the Government's policies. He opined that the Congress Government should have observed the day as `introspection day' in view of its `failure' to live up to many of its pre-poll promises.

"The Congress party's journey started with people but today it is rededicating itself to the World Bank's policies," he remarked, addressing the inaugural session of the two-day State plenum here.

Referring to the State Government's move to accept the third tranche of structural adjustment loan from the World Bank, Mr. Raghavulu cautioned the Government that it would result in restrictions on spending for subsidies and on the education and health sectors in view of the "dangerous conditions" the Bank was keen on imposing.

The CPI (M), Mr. Raghavulu said, had no objection if the State Government wanted to take any amount of loan from the World Bank for completion of irrigation projects or for laying roads. But the World Bank would not give loans for the purpose, as it was more interested in the structural adjustment loan and the conditions it could impose under its garb.

He also hit out at the State Government's Jalayagnam programme, saying the projects in present form, when completed, would only accentuate the existing regional disparities. The solution lay in preparing a comprehensive water policy, without which the Jalayagnam would spell doom.

Mr. Raghavulu wondered why the Government was keen on spending Rs.1,600 crores on Polavaram project, which did not figure in either the list of projects to be completed in two years or five years. In contrast, meager amounts had been earmarked for projects like Devadula and Kalwakurthy.

The CPI(M) State secretary listed out some measures for the Congress Government to follow, as they would enable the party continue in power for as long a period as the CPI (M) had continued in West Bengal.

Among them, bettering the conditions of dalits and tribals in the State was one. For this, the Government should organise social awareness rallies, launch a vigorous campaign against untouchability.

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