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Thursday, Sep 28, 2006
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Jharkhand needs elections: Karat

Special Correspondent

The party will suggest amendments to the SEZ Act in five areas

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is in favour of fresh elections to the Jharkhand Assembly as the existing set-up with independents supported from outside is "unstable."

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat said following the failure of the Arjun Singh Munda Government to prove its majority, two parties, supported by parties such as the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal from outside, had formed the Government. This could only be an interim arrangement and it could not be considered a stable Government, he said.

Referring to the coming Assembly elections in a few States, he said the issue of alliance in Uttar Pradesh would be decided by the party's State committee shortly while the CPI (M) had given a call to defeat the BJP-Akali Dal combine in Punjab. This, however, did not mean the party would go with the Congress that had earned an equally bad name.

He had cautioned the Karnataka Government against giving permission to the BJP to conduct shoba yatra at the Baba Budangiri shrine in Chikmagalur. Though there was a status quo granted by the Supreme Court against the conduct of such yatras at the Sufi shrine, the BJP that had come to power in Karnataka was raising the issue again.

Replying to queries on the lathicharge on Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, he said Ms.Banerjee had been manhandled 100 times in Bengal and "the only difference this time is she is not admitted to hospital." The West Bengal Government that had allotted land for a car factory took the consent of farmers for land acquisition and started distributing cheques when Ms. Banerjee entered the scene and stopped the process. It was only after waiting for sufficient time that the police had to evict her.

Mr. Karat said that the party would suggest amendments to the Special Economic Zones Act in five areas.

These include incorporation of the maximum ceiling on the land being allotted, increasing the industry-infrastructure component of the allotted land to 75 per cent, review of the tax exemption granted to promoters, exercise control over the amount of money entering from abroad and making the approval of States mandatory for setting up SEZs.

He said the food security of the country would be threatened as long as the interests of farmers were not protected.

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