West Bengal

The Left Front parties are very much concerned about the repayment of the life long savings of millions of poor people who invested in these fraud `ponzi schemes’. It becomes the responsibility of the Government of India to identify the people involved in the larger conspiracy and attach their properties, movable and immovable, and ensure return of the deposits to the people so defrauded. The state government had appointed the Justice Shyamal Sen Commission to identify and compensate those defrauded.

The CPI(M) has demanded that the Election Commission of India take “necessary measures and make proper preparations to ensure that the democratic verdict of the people is not manipulated further at the stage of the counting of votes” in West Bengal. In a letter addressed to the Commission by Polit Bureau Member, Sitaram Yechury, the Party has suggested among other things provision of adequate security for the counting agents of all parties. The Party has expressed the apprehension that the widespread violence and intimidation witnessed during the last phase of polling in West Bengal will find reflection during the counting process also.

The CPI(M) and the Left parties have been protesting against the exorbitant rise in the price of unsubsidized gas cylinders and the ceiling on subsidized gas cylinders of nine per year. Protests against this price rise were held in various parts of the country. .....However, the oil companies continue to insist on Aadhar linkage for the supply of subsidized gas cylinders and payment of the full market price for the cylinder on delivery and reimbursement later. The Polit Bureau demands the scrapping of the Aadhar linkage and the delivery of the twelve cylinders at subsidized rates, as earlier.

Despite the massive fraud by this Saradha Group, with closing down of all its offices and default on repayment of at least 17 lakh depositors, no action has yet been taken on the part of the SEBI and the Government of West Bengal to attach the properties of this Saradha Group...

The entire election has been marred by widespread attacks, intimidation and rigging. Thousands of candidates were prevented from filing nominations. In many places opposition candidates were prevented from conducting their election campaign among the people; the polling process was vitiated by widespread rigging, prevention of people casting their votes and violence against opposition candidates......

The Polit Bureau decided to call for a countrywide campaign to “Save Democracy and to Defeat the Violence and Terror in West Bengal”. All Party units will conduct this campaign on August 7, 2013. All Party units will conduct this campaign on August 7, 2013. This campaign will inform the people about the murder of democracy in West Bengal and mobilize support to demand a halt to the violence and terror.

This is the third incident in the district, since the Trinamul Congress came into office, of CPI(M) and trade union leaders being targeted for attack while they were walking in the morning. This heinous killing is part of the systematic efforts to physically eliminate the leaders of the CPI(M) and the trade union movement.

The Central Committee noted that the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, were finally forced to resign after the Prime Minister and the Congress party resisted this demand while the parliament session was on. This has exposed the hypocrisy of the Congress which has blamed the opposition for the disruption of the parliamentary proceedings since the wrong-doing of the ministers became known.

The Left parties are not in agreement with some basic provisions of the land acquisition Bill. A major flaw in the Bill is that it exempts 13 laws from the purview of the Bill. These include the Indian Railways Act, National Highways Act, Land Acquisition Mines Act, Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition & Development Act etc, under which the bulk of the land acquisition takes place.