CPI(M) demands food grains at subsidized rates

CPI(M) demands food grains at subsidized rates

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Apr 8: The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dakshina Kannada, organized a massive picketing and jail bharo agitation in front of the Post Office at Pandeshwar on Thursday, April 8. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secretary of CPI(M) B Madhava said that the government has used the below poverty line (BPL) concept, which is unscientific, to identify beneficiaries despite the CPI(M)’s suggestion of adopting the public distribution system (PDS), which is scientific and aims at food security for all.

The Justice D P Wadhwa Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, to make a study of the PDS had estimated that 20 crore families or about 66 percent of the country’s population is poor. But the government has chosen as beneficiaries only 26 percent of the population, said Mr. Madhava.

He pointed out that President Prathibha Patil had admitted the necessity of price hike in her speech and that the Union Finance Minister had agreed with her that it will not be surprising if the inflation rate reaches double digits.

P Sanjeeva, the party’s secretary, accused the BJP of failing to keep its promises, which were made during the May 2008 Assembly elections, of supplying rice at subsidized rates. He urged the state government to provide 35kg subsidized food grains per month at the rate of Rs 2 per kilo to the poor.

The party demanded subsidized and universal PDS through legislation and equal wages and rights for women. They also urged the government to stop the retrenchment of employees under the pretext of recession and to lift the ban on recruitment.

Pandeshwar police later arrested all the picketers and took them to the police station in a police van and a city bus.