People's Democracy

FROM its one-day meeting held on June 22 at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata, the West Bengal state committee of the CPI (M) has called for strengthening the unity of the rural masses further through mass initiative and mass contact. The state unit has also decided to make every effort to involve the mass of the rural people in a bigger way in all the programmes it would undertake. The state committee meeting was also attended by the sabhadhipatis of all the Zilla Parishads of the state.

Presided over by CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Biman Basu, the meeting was addressed by Dr Surya Kanta Mishra, the panchayat minister of the Bengal Left Front government. Dr Mishra laid emphasis on bringing in a greater quantum of speed, efficiency, honesty, and transparency in the functioning of the three-tier panchayats. The mass of the people must form the hub of activities in the task of implementing the decentralised developmental tasks, he said.

Dr Mishra said that priorities must be fixed based on the needs and demands of the people in the rural areas while running the panchayats. Participation of the people in these tasks must be ensured. The sabhadhipatis spoke about advanced rural planning and an early release of funds for the rural development programmes.

The chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that popular participation was of great importance in organisng the working of the rural self-governing bodies. He drew attention to the crucial role played by the Gram Sansads in this task. He also spoke on the importance of mass literacy campaign, rural health, self-help groups, cottage and small industries, multi-cropping, cattle breeding, rural communications, and rural electrification in augmenting the development of the pro-people role of the panchayats. These programmes will form part of the mass initiative drive being run in the rural areas.

The CPI (M) state secretary, Anil Biswas dwelt on the present political scenario and spoke of further strengthening the unity of the rural masses. Noting that the upcoming panchayat elections would a tough affair, he spoke about widening mass contact and augmenting the Party organisation.

The finance minister of the Bengal Left Front government, Asim Dasgupta narrated the difficulties being faced by the state government because of the hostile attitude of the BJP-led union government. He also briefed about the demands made by the Left Front government from the NDA régime in Delhi.

The state secretariat member of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M), Shyamal Chakravarty spoke on the challenges of rural electrification and said that no efforts must be spared to implement the legislation that the Left Front government was about to implement to prevent illegal theft of electricity.