GUWAHATI, May 18 � The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today lashed out at existing government policies, and asserted that a strong opposition was needed to thwart those. While, party general secretary Prakash Karat went hammer and tongs at the Congress-led UPA government�s alleged pro-rich policies, Tripura Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar highlighted how the Northeast region has remained underdeveloped for lack of political will at the Centre.
Addressing the party�s general body meeting at the ITA Centre in the city, Karat minced no words in holding the Congress-led UPA government responsible for unabated price rise that adversely affected millions of people across the country.
�The main problem that has been left unattended is high prices of all commodities, an area where the government has failed to take appropriate steps,� he remarked. In his view, government policies were to blame for the escalating costs, which allowed future trading or speculative trading of many commodities to take place.
He said that the Union Government was unnecessarily concerned with the corporate sector at the expense of the public sector enterprises, and favoured the former by tax cuts while neglecting the latter. According to him, although the GDP growth of India had been pegged at eight per cent, the benefits of that growth reached only 10 per cent of the country�s population.
Karat claimed that the National Rural Guarantee Programme was introduced at the behest of his party, but even its implementation was tardy with many people yet to receive their due benefits. In this context there was a need for an organised opposition involving people at the grassroots, which was not aligned to either the Congress or the BJP.
The CPI (M) leader lambasted the Union Government for allowing the entry of foreign academic institutions to India with little or no regulatory measures in place. The presence of those would do no good to scores of students who would be inhibited by high fees over which the Government would have no control.
Tripura Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar expressed his concern over government policies failing to address the perennial problems which have plagued the Northeast since the time of Independence. Identifying transportation and communication as major issues in the region, the senior Marxist mentioned that all the states of the region endured difficulties due to dearth of adequate surface and air transport.
He underlined the need to have an improved infrastructure in transport and communication if the people of the region were to benefit in real economic terms.
