MNREGA

Assault on Rural Work Guarantee Law

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The latest expression of the Modi government’s active hostility towards the demand based rural work guarantee law—the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is the imposition of an AADHAR based payment system (ABPS) the deadline of which expired on December 31, snatching away the right to crores of workers.  Under the law, every rural worker has the right to a job card and every job card holder has the right to at least 100 days work.

Act Now

The Covid pandemic continues to surge across the country uncontrollably. Immediate steps are required in order to contain the growing number of deaths and overcome shortages in health facilities.

Economic Steps in Current Period

The Indian economy was already in the grip of a severe slowdown, bordering on recession, with largescale fall in production, job loss, agrarian distress and a steep rise in unemployment on the eve of the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. With this lockdown the situation has worsened and the misery of the people has grown exponentially.

C.C. Communiqué

Contrary to the propaganda that the BJP government has unleashed on the completion of one year in office, the livelihood conditions of the vast majority of the Indian people are actually declining.  The massive hikes in the prices of petroleum products in the background of the fall in the international price of crude oil is fuelling all-round inflation, particularly of food items and essential commodities. 

Polit Bureau Communiqué

The Polit Bureau took serious note of the fact that the United States has sought to pressurize India on the Indian Patent law and Intellectual Property Rights policy. It also sought the dilution of the civil nuclear liability law of the country. Both these are reflected in the joint statement issued by Prime Minister Modi and President Obama. The joint statement announced the decision to set up an Intellectual Property Working Group. The US pharmaceutical companies have been demanding that India dilute its present patent regime which has utilised the flexibilities provided in the TRIPS agreement. It is this which helps to keep drug prices low for the people in India.

On Union Budget

The budget essentially fails to chart a trajectory to increase growth and investment, create employment and check inflation that was needed in the current scenario. It is a budget relying more on privatisation and foreign investment and short on innovative ideas to increase revenue. The budget is grossly regressive and anti-people and would increase the burden on the common people.