The manifesto for the 15th Odisha State Assembly elections released by the Party in Bhubaneswar on March 29 has indicted those political parties or combination of parties who have ruled Odisha since independence for having ruined the state, looting its natural resources and making it one of the most poor and backward states of the country.
Releasing the manifesto State Secretary Janardhan Pati called upon the people of Odisha to increase the strength of the CPI(M), strengthen the Left Parties and defeat the communal BJP, the Congress & the BJD.
The manifesto notes that during the nine-year rule of the BJD-BJP alliance and the BJD for five years the conditions of the people deteriorated further. It held the capitalist path of development, pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies for the precarious situation, which the state finds itself in today. Agriculture is in shambles, area of agricultural operation as well as numbers of the farmers have reduced, people from the state are migrating to other states in search of livelihood, and peasantry is forced to make distress sale of its produce due to absence of government procurement agencies.
Electricity tariff has gone up after privatization of electricity and is likely to go up further after the elections. The state government has refused to increase the minimum wage of workers & peasants and pension of unorganised sector workers. While the state government has refused to pay Rs 1000/- p.m. to the old, disabled & widows, it has enhanced the salary & pension of MLAs.