The Hindu : Kerala News : Back out of Indo-U.S. nuclear deal: CPI

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Sunday, May 04, 2008
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Back out of Indo-U.S. nuclear deal: CPI

Staff Reporter

KASARAGOD: The possibility of a consensus emerging between the UPA government and the Left parties on the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal was bleak and the only option before the Union government was to back out of the project, said Communist Party of India (CPI) deputy general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy.

Addressing a Meet-the-Press programme organised here on Saturday, Mr. Reddy said the Left would not find the agreement favourable to India as long as the Hyde Act existed in the U.S. He said his party did not have any delusion on the oncoming UPA-Left meeting on the issue slated to be held on May 6.

Cement, steel prices

Commenting on price rise, Mr. Reddy demanded that the Union government take strong measures to fix the price of steel and cement and even nationalise those cement companies which refused to lower prices.

He said the UPA government was not showing the resolve to arrest the rise in prices despite the approaching Lok Sabha elections.

The cement companies had refused to obey the directives of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and even threatened to pass on any additional taxes to customers, he said.

The Finance Minister’s words would not carry any weight unless it were followed with strong action, he said.

Mr. Reddy noted that the Centre had not called a meeting of Chief Ministers to draft a strategy to control price rise in spite of the Left demanding it. The government lacked a comprehensive strategy to tackle the issue, he said.

Closure of units

He criticise the Union government’s decision to wind up three vaccine manufacturing units in the public sector.

The government should have taken steps to modernise the public sector units, he said.

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