The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : CPI(M) district meet to discuss economic disparities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

CPI(M) district meet to discuss economic disparities

Special Correspondent

Meet to discuss encroachment of government land
Party to press for more housing for the poor

BANGALORE: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will hold its Bangalore district conference at Doddaballapur near here for three days from December 23. The conference will focus on the issue of economic disparities.

K. Prakash, secretary of the Bangalore district party unit, told presspersons here on Saturday that Bangalore city and Bangalore Urban district were witnessing a high level of socio-economic disparities. The disparities became more pronounced after the city became a hub for information technology and biotechnology.

He said that only 20 per cent of the population of Bangalore had access to civic services. The poor were deprived of even basic amenities such as housing, water supply, social security, livelihood security and land.

Mr. Prakash said a few people had cornered huge expanses of land in Bangalore and its periphery with the help of political and money power. These lands had been converted into posh residential localities for the ultra-rich. There was hardly any land available for the Bangalore Development Authority to acquire for distribution among the middle class, and Government-sponsored housing schemes for poor people had almost become non-existent.

He alleged that the “land mafia” in Bangalore had encroached on over 41,000 acres of government land. The party conference would discuss these issues, and a representation would be made to Governor Rameshwar Thakur seeking redressal of the grievances of the poor.

The CPI(M) has already given 65,000 applications for sites from poor people to the Government. The party will launch a movement to ensure housing for the poor and the retrieval of all land that has been encroached upon.

The conference will also highlight the plight of poor people on account of only four commodities being distributed through the Public Distribution System in the State, unlike in Kerala where people living below the poverty line get all commodities, including pulses, edible oil and cereals, in addition to kerosene, rice, sugar and wheat. Tamil Nadu annually earmarks Rs. 1,000 crore for food subsidy, particularly for the rice at Rs. 2 a kg scheme for families living below the poverty line. A similar arrangement is there in Andhra Pradesh as well, Mr. Prakash said.

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