The Hindu : National : Left deplores Opposition threat

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Monday, Jul 05, 2004

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National

Left deplores Opposition threat

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 4. By disrupting the functioning of Parliament since the formation of the 14th Lok Sabha the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Opposition has refused to accept the people's verdict, the Left parties alleged today.

Deploring the threat to disrupt the Budget session, a meeting of the leadership of four Left parties said today that it exposed the Opposition's frustration after its setback at the hustings.

The meeting resolved to press for the implementation of the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance in order to "correct" all the anti-people measures of the previous BJP-led Government.

The Left will also demand complete "detoxification" of the Human Resource Development Ministry and restoration of the secular neutrality of the government.

On the agrarian front, the Left intends to be vocal on the crisis facing the farm sector, particularly in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and other States. "The Left will highlight their miseries and demand that the Government take appropriate steps to help the farmer," senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Nilotpal Basu, said.

On the spate of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the killing of civilians and security personnel, the Left parties, expressing concern, decided to raise in Parliament the issue of restoring normality in the State.

The meeting also expressed dismay over non-adherence of the mandatory jute packaging order norms despite a stay order by the Calcutta High Court. "This has resulted in a serious crisis in the jute industry. The tea industry is also in a crisis due to closure of tea gardens, import of tea and loss of international export market."

The Left parties plan to raise the issue and demand that the Government come up with a solution.

The leaders who attended the meeting were Basudev Acharia, Nilotpal Basu, Dipankar Mukherjee, and Md. Salim (CPI-M), P.K. Vasudevan Nair, Gurudas Dasgupta and Ajay Chakraborty (CPI), Bir Singh Mahato (All-India Forward Bloc) and Abani Ray, Manoj Bhattacharya and Joachim Baxla (Revolutionary Socialist Party).

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